Strangers with Skeletons
by SongMina
Summary: Arthur's first year in hogwarts turned out very diffrent from what he expected. To be completely honest: He should be in Azkaban by now. Pottertalia/Human AU - Magic Trio - It's like a "What did the other students do when Harry was in school?" perspective change with humanized countries.- Rating because cursing 11 year olds
1. Stranger danger

**(This story is set in an AU that we've been calling "ALVerse," to distinct it from the usual Pottertalia.)**

 **Hi there pal, this fanfiction right here was born because of my dear friend's deep love for the magic trio in Hogwarts. It was such a small niche of liking, and she couldn't find a fanfiction that fitted her needs properly. That's why I decided to write it for her. Though, I did take the freedom to add my own interests. So in a sense, this AU is co-created by me (Mina) and the-friend-who-has-no-name.**

 **So the fic itself.. Hm. Well I think most literature speaks for itself, so I feel like if you want to know more- you just gotta get to reading.**

 **Some more "tag" like info though: DenNor subtext, Side-character OCs, and the simple fact that this is an Au where I will have to bend some rules set by Rowling to write an interesting story.**

 **As much as I would like to say it's a perfect add on to canon without anything that couldn't exist in canon, there are some parts in it that might not work with everyone. Nothing too major, though, I think.**

 **Also I am a Finn, so please, just..**

 **Hang on while I try to figure how to English. I went out of my way to include some of my weirder ways of spelling into this weird introduction segment here, so if any weird grammatical thing stung you in the face like an angry bee- Then well..**

 **You can still turn away.**

Arthur found the train a strangely pleasant change from his home life. People were already running through the hallway laughing and screaming, which he would have found annoying in any other situation. Luckily, no sound was anything compared to his brothers.

Arthur hadn't been able to sleep that week, and certainly not because he was excited beyond belief to finally go to Hogwarts- but because his brothers were staying up too late and rambling like idiotic chickens. Arthur would _never_ be that excited for something as childish as going to the school he has been dreamed of for the day he heard about it.

He stumbled around with his luggage, trying to find a peaceful compartment. His plan was simple: Go in, and relax. Unlike the other kids, he didn't have to spend the ride freaking out about Hogwarts.

He finally found an acceptable compartment. It wasn't very packed, only one other person had chosen it.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" Arthur asked politely, unlike many of his age he had manners.

The other boy nodded, without lifting his gaze from the book he was holding. The books cover didn't seem that interesting: it was blue and had a bit of golden décor on the sides. Of course Arthur would never judge a book by the cover, he was sure the book must have had intriguing and compelling text!

He casually smiled to himself, and sat on the opposite side of the room. Arthur found the used feeling of the seating fabric quite soothing, it reminded him somewhat of his grandmother's place. He definetly enjoyed his grandma's place, so it was nice.

He turned his head towards the window, the train had already left the station. Outside the compartment kids were screaming and laughing, Arthur would never do something as childish. Arthur was a mature young man, according to his father (most of the time).

It seemed that the other kid was having trouble immersing himself in his book because of the sound, but Arthur found it comfortable. Having a calm quiet moment in his household was rare, so he had gotten actually somewhat attached to screaming as white noise.

He leaned his head against the wall, not the most comfortable position- but it was good enough. He was going to just relax a bit, listen to the train humming along. It was a change of pace he could get used to.

Before he realized it, there was an announcement: "We'll be arriving to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry in a few minutes. Please prepare to leave the train, and put on your robes."

He slowly opened his eyes back up, he didn't even remember really closing them. He must have fallen asleep.

With a sudden movement he jumped up from the seat, into a more awake position. How could he sleep for so long? How _dared_ he sleep during his first Hogwarts train ride! Arthur felt distraught, like he had disgraced his family name.

He quickly looked around to gather back his understanding of his situation. The compartment had been light up, but outside it was dark, just trees and dark- how exciting.

The other kid was still reading his book, seemingly much more relaxed than before, probably because the screaming seemed to have quieted down.

Arthur leaned back against the seat, and he sighed in relief.

He wasn't the type to snooze off, this was something completely new for him. He let his hand run through his hair, as he tried to think of an explanation. Arthur wasn't going to accept that he could be the reason. It must have been his brothers, they made him tired, with their endless babbling. That was the only explanation that made sense.

With that solved, he returned back to his professional-esque-train-travel-ability. Arthur had already dressed up in his robe at home, no way was a wizard of his level going to appear in public with muggle clothing. That left him the job of re-checking his luggage.

As he re-folded one of his extra robes, the compartment door opened up again.

From the door a third blond appeared, with two darker haired kids. It seemed much like some strange gang.

"Mind if we sit here? The others don't seem to get that not all master minds want to talk for hours." His voice was boastful, but he seemed nice enough.

"I don't mind." Arthur answered, and then turned his head towards the original compartment kid. The blond just shrugged, and the newcomers took it as a yes.

It didn't take long for the small space have a drastic mood change. This new kid was talking, and doing it awfully much.

"Can you belive how many muggleborns there are here? Must be a new record or something." The boastful one seemed to pick up a conversation that had dropped earlier, focusing on his strange companions that seemed to purely excist to listen to him.

Arthur decided to just ignore it and return back to his robe folding. He couldn't help but to over hear the boastful, piercing, annoying voice through the gentle sound of fabric being folded.

Streangely- Muggleborns, Purebloods, true wizards, all sorts of labels where being thrown nonchalantly around. Not the most enjoyable backround sound.

Arthur didn't mind too much, he had heard that type of voice before. In fact: On a daily basis.

The images of his oldest brother Andrew flashed in his mind from even slightly thinking about the word 'boastful.' Of course, he cursed all his brothers, but Andrew was the worst. He was the oldest, and acted like that made him the best. Since Arthur was a little kid he would tell him how he was terrible at this and that, and how it was _supposed_ to be done. Luckily to Arthur this year in hogwarts was Andrew's last, and he would be at peace after that.

He was finally getting his chance to be the best of his family, the kid who gets better grades than Andrew. The one kid that becomes the greatest wizard of the family, is beloved by his peers and looked up by even the teachers. There was no question about it, he had studied Andrew's school years with a close eye, and knew exactly what to expect from Hogwarts.

While the other kids were nervous and excited, Arthur could avoid such a trap. He was prepared, ahead of everyone from the very beginning. All those nights spent reading his school books, reading extra books, and deeply analysing everything his brothers said about Hogwarts: They were finally going to pay off.

Even above all that, he had his secret weapon prepared. Nothing was going to stop him from becoming a revolutionary wizard when he had da-

"Hey." Suddenly the loud one spoke.

"Huh-" Arthur was snapped out of his thoughts, which once again: nothing new.

"You've been folding those shirts pretty violently. What's up?"

"I have? Ah. How careless of me." He placed the shirt back down, a bit awkwardly. "I've just been thinking quite a lot today."

"Must be rare for you." The kid laughed a bit.

"That's awfully rude." Arthur squinted his eyes, trying to look as menacing as an 11 year old folding shirts can.

"It was just a joke, calm down." Another short giggle. Arthur felt somewhat un-comfortable by the behaviour he was witnessing. "Let's try that again: what's up?"

"Nothing much really, just sitting in a train."

"You're not nervous?"

"Not at all."

"Ah, you're not a mudblood then."

The person who was still entranced with his book seemed to move a bit in his seat, but it wasn't enough to distract anyone.

"No, I am actually from a family of all wizards." Arthur answered somewhat proudly.

"What's your last name?"

"Kirkland. My name is Arthur Kirkland."

"Kirkland?" The kid smiled like some annoyingly full of themselves bag of useless garbage. "The famous bloodtraitor family. Oh, of course you would be from there!"

Arthur moved a bit back, that was un-expected. "What are you getting at?"

"Hah, you don't even understand the bloodline business, how sad." he smirked. "I'm Draco Malfoy, a pure blood. There's not even a drop of muggle blood within my bloodline. My family is rich, my father works in the ministry, and then there's yours. I heard your family members decided to reproduce with every muggle they could get their hands on."

"I'll have you know that it was just my grandfather."

"Like that changes anything. Once stained, always stained."

Arthur's eyebrows furrowed in a furious insecure effort of taking action. "You're not even worth dealing with."

"You're just backing away because you know I'm right."

"Not everything revolves around you."

"Maybe not me specifically, but my family is an un-stoppable force of power. Don't mess with me, I could destroy your future. If you had one."

"How about you shut your mouth?"

"Are you afraid of what comes out?"

"Nah, I'm just done listening to your bloody voice."

"And why is that?"

"Because all that comes out is sourceless rubbish!"

"You're just an insecure idiot!"

"Look who is talking!"

"Your eyebrows are bigger than your future!"

The sound a book slamming pierced the arguing kids' thick heads.

Everyone in the train turned their attention towards the so far absolutely quiet blond. His deep blue eyes had a strength to them that kept them quiet.

"What now?" Malfoy said with a childish annoyance.

He breathed in deeply before speaking "I can't read if you're shouting pointless insults at each other."

Arthur found the boy's voice strange, mostly because of the accent. A strong accent as a matter of fact, the type that you still understood but knew that they didn't speak much English at where ever they were from. Inexperienced, was probably the word he was looking for. Yet the voice itself sounded like it could be gentle, even warm, when not used to showcase annoyance.

"He started it." Malfoy said, which everyone silently agreed was childish.

"It doesn't matter who started it. What matter is who is the mature one and stops trying to be a victor in a stupid argument."

"Hm?" Malfoy titled his head, his face turned from defeat to purely acted wide-eyed wonder. "What did you say? I didn't quite understand."

Huh? Arthur couldn't help but be taken back, what he had said was clear even with the accent. No-one could not understand what he said unless-

Oh.

The boy looked at the ground, instantly breaking eye contact. The almost menacing presence had quickly turned into a ghost-like visibility.

"Did a cat get your tongue?" Malfoy said, in the most disrespectful tone anyone ever could in a situation like this.

The boy just looked away, and opened his book. His movements looked forced, it was painful to look at.

"Ah well. Doesn't really matter. I doubt you even had anything important to say." Malfoy smirked and turned towards the door. "You might as well stay quiet."

And as suddenly as he had arrived, he left. His goons smirked as well, but it lacked any believability.

Arthur was left a silent bystander at his seat. He breathed in, out, and looked at the silent husk that was left of the already almost absent boy.

He closed his travel trunk, he could fold his pants later.

"It was, uh-" He started. "Very nice of you to speak up."

No answer.

"I let it get pretty heated up, I should have just stopped encouraging him, huh?" He said. Arthur found it hard to keep eye contact intact, and slowly moved his attention to checking his robe for any dust.

"I can't belive how rude he was."

Another announcement flooded through the train, they had arrived.

The boy closed his book quickly, got up, grapped his luggage, and speed walked to the door.

"I thought you were easy to understand-"

The compartment door slammed.

"..Ah." Arthur sighed.

That didn't go according to plan.

Once he left the train, he was guided through a small forest path to small boats. It was tradition for first years to enter the school this way for the first time. He noticed that the boy and Malfoy were both in the group, but too far away from him to really affect him.

He decided to try to focus on himself for now, he didn't know about those two to let them drag his Hogwarts experience down.

The path finally reached out of the forest, and behold: Hogwarts.

Arthur couldn't help but to be impressed. He had seen it in photos many times, but it was much grander in the real world. He wasn't jumping from excitement like the other students, but certainly impressed. The castle was huge, and looked at the same time inviting, as well as menacing.

Hagrid, the keeper of keys, as well as their escort told them to climb onto the itty bitty boats. Arthur watched as the students climbed on, but soon found himself joining the last boat to leave the shore. It wasn't that bad, he got to see the lantern army of small boats from the best spot.

He climbed on, his boating companions included a young boy and a really tall girl.

"'Sup" the girl spoke to him right after leaving the shore.

"..Sup?" Arthur found himself smiling, he didn't mind it much.

"Yeah, 'sup." The boy joined in.

"Is that like what's up?"

"Yeah."

"Well, in that case: Pretty good." He nodded, just to show an understanding that he actually lacked. "Heh, I thought my way of speaking was laid back."

"If you're laid back then I'm halfway through the floor." The boy giggled.

"That doesn't sound very relaxing anymore."

"I'm so relaxed that it's not relaxing anymore."

"Oh my god."

Arthur found the change of tone very pleasing, maybe he should have joined the screaming kids in the train.

"I'm Brook by the way." She offered her hand for Arthur to shake.

Arthur obliged without a doubt. "I'm Arthur."

"Vlad." The boy said, raising his hand a little. Arthur supposed handshakes weren't cool enough for him.

"Like the vamp-"

"Don't."

"Can you belive we'll be studying in a big magic castle?!" Brook masterfully changed the subject.

"Not really." Vlad smiled widely, he was enjoying the company. "I still can't belive wizards are real."

"Or that I'm one of them." Brook nodded.

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

Arthur smiled, it felt good to be the one who actually knows more than others. "It must be exciting for people from non-wizard families."

"You're a full-on wizard?!" Brook squeaked with excitement.

"Yup." Arthur nodded. "Family of 4, and 5 if you count my mother's first son. We're not directly related though."

"That's a lot of wizards." Vlad smirked to himself, he was sitting quite comfortably in the seat that was supposed to hold two people.

"I suppose so." Arthur shrugged with a smile.

"Aah, I can't wait to learn to turn tables into flaming frogs!" Brook excitedly wiggled in her seat.

"Why would you want to turn tables into flaming frogs?" Arthur said, playing along with the excitement.

"Because I can!" Brook Threw her hands in the air as a glorious showcase of true excitement.

"Yeah, what else would you turn them into?" Vlad nodded. "Mahogany fire frogs sound fun."

"Or Oak."

"What are you two even talking about?" Arthur held back laughter, this was the type of behaviour he needed for his plan. Though he did genuinely find it enjoyable.

Vlad and Brook argued about different wood types for a bit, and then the conversation calmed down for a moment.

It wasn't a heavy silence, nor an awkward one. It was a genuine silence of just feeling joy.

Of course it didn't last long. "Hey, Arthur?" Brook spoke up.

"Yes?" He said.

"Which house do you want to go to?" Brook tilted her head, she seemed curious.

"Slytherin." Arthur nodded proudly. "What else?"

"..Slytherin." Vlad raised his eyebrows in an expression that could only be described as a disappointed but above you.

"What?" Arthur picked up on the animosity right away.

"Isn't that the house for evil?"

Arthur couldn't help but let out a "Hah." and rolls his eyes. "Of course the propaganda has reached you already."

Brook seemed to feel un-comfortable from the way she was having trouble choosing which person to point her eyes towards of.

"Slytherin is the house for people who are smart, brave, and loyal. They work towards a goal with talent and efficency. It is a house for those who don't have time for idiotic distractions." Arthur spoke like he would have prepared a speech. "It isn't evil. People have just used their talents in the wrong way a few too many times."

"..So evil." Vlad said, his voice was emotionless, he just sat there. Not snarky comments or smirks.

"How do you even get evil from that?!"

"How many evil wizards have come from.. I don't know.. Ravenclaw?"

"I'll let you know that Ravenclaws have a tendency to stab each other in the back!"

"So what's propaganda and what's true?"

"Just use some common sense-"

"I want to go to Hufflepuff." Brook suddenly cut them off.

"What?" Arthur looked at her in a very un-pleasant way. What kind of a person changes a subject like that?

"No need to be rude." Vlad said, still with no flavour.

"Well excus-"

"What about you, Vlad?" Brook quickly repeated her amazing subject changing skills.

"Gryffindor. Of course." Vlad said, he at least bothered to smile to Brook. It had a tinge of smug resentment towards Arthur though. "The best house."

"There's no such thing has a best house!"

"Yet you wonder what else there even is besides Slytherin." Vlad's words stinged.

"Oh bloody hell, how about you just shut up." Arthur threw his hands out too, not with excitement but frustration.

"Sure." Vlad rolled his eyes and turned his head to the side.

Brook was left speechless, she didn't try to fix the mood up anymore.

They all climbed out of the boats once they entered the indoor docks.

Arthur found himself far away from Vlad, the book boy, Malfoy, and Brook. It seemed that he could have done the friendship part of the plan better.

They all entered the great hall. It was nice. Floating candles are pretty cool.

Arthur couldn't bring himself to try to get into the magical wonder that he assumed the others were enjoying, but that was what he wanted, right?

Brook was the first of the people he knew by name to enter the stage, she got into Hufflepuff. Arthur was somewhat happy about that, she hadn't done anything wrong.

More names go by, as Arthur looks around the ones that have already had their houses chosen. He notices Andrew quickly, laughing, being in the spotlight. Not surprising. He didn't see any other familiar faces, though.

"Lukas Bondevik." McGottaGoFast said in another invitation to the stage.

Arthur turned to look, and to his surprise – It was the kid with the book. He walked on the stage, not looking particularly anxious, that's good.

Lukas sat down on the chair, and the hat was placed on his head. It didn't take long for everyone to notice that it was taking long, he must have been a toughie.

Arthur felt somewhat quilty of what he did in the train, if he could have controlled his temper Lukas wouldn't have had to get insulted like that. Of course the main convict was Malfoy, but he couldn't deny his own participation.

"Slytherin!" The hat finally decided on something.

Arthur felt strange all of a sudden, was he happy Lukas was a Slytherin?

He wasn't planning on more than apologising to Lukas, but this could change things. He hadn't decided to exactly befriend Lukas, but certainly the kid seemed much more intresting. Being a Slytherin was something they shared as a similarity, and Lukas seemed smart in the train.

Arthur decided to keep an eye on this Bondevik kid.

Soon he was sorted as well. It was quite a quick response form the hat. The hat did try to suggest throwing him in Gryffindor, but that sounded grossly wrong to him.

He walked to the Slytherin table, and sat on the first empty spot he found. The food looked delicious, and his brother didn't seem to be trying to talk to him. Arthur did wonder if his brother even noticed that he was already sorted.

He had a good time sitting there, getting welcomed by the people around him.

Until the name "Vlad" Echoed into his ears.

Arthur turned towards the stage.

The chin-length brown hair was un-mistakable. Vlad walked on the stage, and he seemed to be the more relaxed snarky version once again.

The hat dropped on his head, and it almost immediately tried to say something. Suprisingly, it stopped before anything meaningful came out.

A silence of whispering fell on the room, people were very confused why the hat changed it's mind so quickly.

After a bit of whisper discourse, the hat finally decided on something: "Gryffindor!" It shouted, even though sounding a bit unsure.

Vlad though, seemed happy enough. He was invited in by the house with joyful clapping, and people quickly moved onto the next kid.

Arthur felt weird following Vlad's sorting like that, like it would have been wrong to some degree. He couldn't quite place why, and so he decided to try to ignore it.

After the sorting, everyone begun eating. it was a very enjoyable evening meal, and Arthur found himself feeling quite stuffed afterwards.

Everyone was taken to their houses by their houses main prefects, and Arthur found himself laying on a fluffy mattress on a fancy bed in a dark but nice basement. Certainly an unique feeling.

As he looked above him, he felt.. Pleasant. Even though both boat ride and train ride were absolute disasters, he was interested in the school year ahead of him. He still had his goals and plans ready, and nothing was going to stop him from being the best wizard in his family. Not even some annoying Malfoy, or biased Vlad.

Even though he had the talent to conquer them all on his own, it didn't bother at all to have his secret weapon at his side.

Dark magic.

 **SO THERE'S THAT**

 **If you enjoyed that, I hope you'll stick around to see the next. This fic already has over 10 chapters written beforehand (I got a little excited), so weekly updates for a while! After that you're just going to have to wait, unless I get excited again.**

 **if you enjoyed that and it isn't too much work, please leave a review. Those make my day, and the-friend-who-shall-not-be-named would probably freak out (in a good way.(I would freak out too, tbh.))**


	2. According to plan?

**Here's the second chapter, you beautiful few followers who've given this thing a chance. This is very much a set up chapter like the one before. While writing this I kind of had to see how I would actually go about writing the fic, but I like where it went.**

 **I hope you all do too.**

In his first few weeks at Hogwarts, Arthur had quickly realized that he might have gotten a bit too arrogant. School wasn't exactly as clean cut as expected, it was chaotic and with a high learning curve.

The classrooms were up and down stairs, through hallways, and sometimes right in front of you just to mess you up. Finding the classrooms wasn't too hard, you just had to stick together with the rest of the class whenever possible.

Arthur could feel the older students grinning from the appearance of small 11 year olds migrating from class to class. He found it repulsive that he was looked down upon in such a pathetic way.

It wasn't something he could avoid, when he was walking alone people would ask if he was lost. Better to have more people around him, not because he was anxious but because they needed him around. Yes.

He would have transfiguration next, he didn't need to formation to find that classroom anymore, but he decided to follow along. He usually tagged along the back, since it had more space.

Usually he was on his own at the behind, but in rare cases he would be joined by Lukas.

Well, "joined" was the wrong word. It was more of a "Walking 4 meters further trying to not look like he is even part of the group."

It was somewhat humorous how obvious it was that he was clearly in the same class, but also made Arthur feel a little concerned. He didn't know Lukas very well at all yet, and the kid would raise his hand up in class rarely(, but when he did it was always correct). Outside of class he didn't really talk at all, and didn't seem to be in the common room.

Arthur was somewhat worried he was distancing himself from everyone, not that it was his business. He should focus on his already broken plan, and try to save whatever was left of it.

Arthur could still try to focus on his studies, and he hadn't even learnt his classmates' names. He could still find allies within the group. He also did find out that he wasn't sharing class with Malfoy, which helped.

"Artie!" A boastful voice of arrogance that was flooding with rubbish spoke up.

Arthur stopped in his tracks, and turned around. He recognised that face anywhere, mostly because it was quite similar to his own. "Andrew."

"How are you doing? We haven't gotten the chance to talk."

"Like you care." Arthur scoffed and tried to return to the group that had kept walking.

"Hey, come on." Andrew followed along, it seemed far too easy to catch up to Arthur with those long legs that Arthur cursed. He wanted to be tall too. "I want to hear if you're liking Hogwarts so far."

"The school seems fine." Arthur mumbled.

"Well that's good enough, huh?" His big brother ruffled his hair a bit. "You can finally learn some actual spells."

"I know actual spells!"

"You can know them, but actually casting them is a whole different deal." Andrew said proudly, it seemed actually somewhat passionate. "Try not to get overwhelmed."

"I won't be overwhelmed, thank you very much."

The other Slytherins were turning their heads towards the two, much to Arthur's disapproval.

"Let's hope so, I remember how freaked out Owen-was."

Arthur rolled his eyes "I'm not a softie like him."

"Owen is soft but he could still kick your ass." Andrew laughed.

Arthur pouted. "Just because he is older."

"Yeah, maybe." Andrew shrugged. "Also he can keep his cool, which you really lack."

"…And you don't?" Arthur looked at Andrew with a face that would make even Malfoy feel attacked.

"…" Andrew looked at him for a moment, not from surprise but more of a thoughtful annoyance. "I'm not denying that."

Arthur felt successful. "Good."

"Doesn't change your temper though."

The sound of a "hmph" escaped Arthur. It was true that he could be a bit temperamental and he was trying to keep it in control, since he didn't want to repeat the train issue. The temper wasn't entirely his fault though- Everyone expect his mother and Owen were easy to anger, and it only got worse after his mother left.

"I have class now and you clearly do too, so I'll be going now." Andrew added, after the somewhat awkward silence between them. "I'll see you later." He said and begun walking the other way.

"See ya." Arthur mumbled to him, and returned closer to the main group. They all arrived to the door leading to the class, but the teacher had yet to arrive. He walked close to the wall so him standing alone wouldn't look as pathetic. A bit further away the Ravenclaws they were going to share class with were chatting away, it was surprising how quickly they had befriended Arthur's class.

Lukas had arrived already though, he was leaning against the wall a bit further away, reading his book again.

Arthur found the book a strange thing - he had seen it about 50 times already in less than a month. Lukas seemed to carry it around everywhere, and nothing seemed to distract him from it.

Another thing he had noticed was that the book seemed to always be opened from a completely different page. It wasn't just a reading forward quickly thing, but more of a random page each time.

He had decided that either the book was something people could read non-chronologically, or Lukas wasn't actually reading the book. Arthur wouldn't be surprised if Lukas actually just used it to shield himself.

Arthur also felt like a creeper for noticing something so small, and so he avoided thinking about it most of the time.

"Hey." Some Ravenclaw spoke up. She had walked up to Lukas and opened her mouth, which was a first as far as Arthur knew.

Lukas lifted his gaze from the book, his face remaining emotionless.

"What are you reading?" The girl smiled, seemingly trying to break the ice.

"A book." Lukas said, his answer wasn't exactly a confident announcement. It was a quick simple answer that lacked any depth.

"Hah, yeah I can see that." The girl awkwardly nodded. "Just wondering what it was about."

"…Boats." Lukas mumbled, how strange.

"Oh, I love boats! My grandpa used to own one, but then it broke."

The boy looked at the girl for a very small bit, and then turned back towards the book. The girl didn't seem that happy about Lukas' reaction, and awkwardly said something along the lines of "Yeah, okay, see you around."

The girl returned to her friend group, and the others seemed supportive of her efforts.

Arthur leaned to the opposite wall from Lukas, he felt somewhat confused by the interaction. He had thought that Lukas was just hurt by Malfoy and held back to not have it happen again, but now another theory creeped up. From another perspective Lukas seemed very cold, like everyone annoyed him.

Arthur sighed just thinking about it, the theory made too much sense to ignore. It is always possible that he judged Lukas wrong- it wasn't like he had ever talked to Lukas properly.

McGonagall arrived to start the lesson, just on time. Arthur had to admit that thinking about something other than his failures in communication was nice.

They all entered the classroom, both Ravenclaws and Slytherins sat down in a mostly orderly fashion.

Arthur sat at the middle section, not too much back and not too much in the front. It was a comfortable place to sit in, as it gave him the freedom to know exactly who had their hands help up. No-one in the back ever raised them, unless you counted Lukas.

They had been studying the theory of Transfiguration. As a subject it was far more important to have the details down, since any mishaps could be very destructive.

Even today it was only just writing down notes about the subject. As McGonagall spoke Arthur wrote. The sound of quills moving on paper had turned into white noise in a week for most students.

"Who here would like to share what they found out on their research assignment?" McGonagall asked, after she had explained how they would soon move onto practical training.

Arthur wanted to finish writing the sentence he was working on, and so decided to not raise his hand.

"Yes, Bonnefoy?" McGonagall said, and pointed towards one of the boys in Ravenclaw as if to pass on a mic.

The boy stood up to answer, Arthur couldn't help but to think that it was overdoing it. "I picked option B."

"The effects that a failure of precision can have, right?" McGonagall nodded, she didn't seem to think the extra effort was pretentious.

"Yes professor." He nodded.

"Please share us the main thing you found out, so the students that picked option A can understand as well."

Another nod: "I found out about case about a woman named Dortha Apted, who tried to become and animagus, but during the process she spoke the incantation wrong, causing the potion to turn her into something akin to a turtle humanoid." Bonnefoy explained, he had a French accent and Arthur had to admit it was getting on his nerves.

"The turtle of the tower, ah yes. A very known story." McGonagall nodded. "She proceeded to be locked up in a tower by muggles and have the tower burnt with her still inside."

Some of the students left out noises of discomfort, and other laughed from how unnerving it sounded.

Arthur wasn't that phased, he knew how terrible muggles could be, not all of them but certainly few.

"You may sit." McGonagall stated. "Bonnefoy's example was good, but because the concept of animagi isn't a topic we'll be covering in a few years, I will have to refrain from giving him points."

"Now before we move onto option A, I want to ask if any of you remember the difference between transfiguration and untransfiguration." She asked indirectly, examining the classes reaction.

Arthur decided to take the chance, and showcase his knowledge. He had learnt to respect Professor McGonagall as a teacher, she clearly knew what she was doing. It also appeared that he was the only one holding his hand up, this was his chance to shine.

"Bonnefoy." McGonagall said.

Arthur twitched, lowering his hand and quickly turning towards the boy. "What?!" He thought "How could she choose the same student twice?"

"It is the act of reversing a transformation. Usually appearing in the form of counter spells." He explained.

"Counter spells?!" Arthur screeched in his head, he didn't even think of that! This Bonnefoy both steals his spotlight and knows more, how can that be. Arthur did have plans for the possibility of a rival, but he didn't expect one to appear so soon.

McGonagall continued the lesson, and Bonnefoy seemed to not have even noticed Arthur.

If only he knew what a powerful enemy he had made.

After class Arthur examined Francis' every move, as he packed and left. Sloppy packing, might he add. Carrying that many books in such an un-even formation would cause accidents.

He walked out of the door afterwards, and looked at his schedule. It was break time, and afterwards Defence against dark arts. Arthur didn't have much to do outside of class, but he had learnt that wondering aimlessly was an enjoyable pastime. Of course if you asked him, he would explain that it was just learning his way around the castle for more efficient navigation

Arthur had been in Hogwarts for 2 weeks now, this being the Thursday of the 3rd. Many people had already formed cliques, decided upon favourite subjects and gotten into trouble. He wasn't going to deny that he was a bit jealous, but it was expected. Of course he was a little disappointed- his whole childhood was mostly tainted by him being alone with his family.

He never had friends that weren't related to him, he would be lying if he said that he somewhat expected people to be amazed by his talent and family name and beg to be his friends. He didn't need anyone though, he was going to become a great wizard even without anyone.

Owen, his second oldest brother had told him that he himself had trouble making friends the first month and that Arthur wouldn't need to worry. As if he needed friends, everyone should just stop underestimating him.

After his aimless wonder he found a bathroom or two, a weird painting with a dog and a quick route from the library to the common room. He decided that it wasn't a bad journey and joined back up with the rest in class.

The day carried on like a normal school day, and soon Arthur found himself in the common room doing homework.

He wasn't alone with the fact that homework had to be done, which was kind of nice.

"Do you know what page I can find the answer to 4?"

Arthur looked up, it was Stephan, one of his classmates. From Arthur's observations Stephan seemed to be a bit of an a idiot, the class clown. "Which subject?"

"Potion thingy."

"Potions? It's page 26." Arthur answered, he actually felt strange that he was being talked to.

Stephan walked back to his friend group, all of them were oblivious and idiotic, but they didn't bother anyone so it wasn't that big a deal.

Arthur returned back to his homework, completing it quite quickly. That gave him time to just kind of, be there. Which had started t0 bother him. Why was it that every time he was given free time it felt empty? He always just started thinking about his lack of friends or the existence of his brothers, and neither of things mattered. They were beneath him. Arthur decided not to bother with that, and started reading a book he had both along with him. It was an extra book on transfiguration, he might as well study up to show Bonnefoy who was boss.

The evening continued, people walked out and in. Some were freaking out for the 20th time about the giant squid that swam past the dungeon windows now and then, which had gotten old fast. Arthur didn't have anything against the squid, but it was just a big squid.

Later Arthur found himself thinking about how green the dungeon was, it was strange that a room underground that would probably be lighten up mostly by fire would be so green. He questioned if the other common rooms were also really yellow or blue. If the Gryffindor room was as red as Slytherin's was green, it would explain how aggressive some of them were.

It was getting late, and some students were sleeping on the sofas by the fire place.

Arthur found himself yawning, the thought of getting up and going to bed rise to his mind. He had no reason to even sit there, he hadn't done anything interesting all evening.

Actually when he thought about it he hadn't done anything interesting all month. He found himself somewhat freaked out about his lack of activity. Every evening he would just walk in to the common room, do homework, and then repeat the usual day. How did he let this happen?

He had such a good plan for his Hogwarts experience, based on his brother's experiences, research and deep analytical thinking done with his genius 11 year old brain. How did it make any sense that there he was not doing anything? Even now his thoughts went in circles.

Why didn't he have friends? Did he ever even think of that?

Arthur leaned forwards looking around the common room, what did the others have that he didn't? It wasn't the ability to be nice, Arthur could be a very nice person when approached. It wasn't that he hadn't been approached by people, many had greeted him and stirken up a conversation, but no-one stayed.

…Not that it mattered, of course.

He shook his head, he had to get his plan back to working condition. Luckily he had prepared for setbacks, he did have his safety net.

He looked around, he was at a private enough spot. He was on one of the couches that had it's back to the others, and faced one of the windows the squid could swim past of. No-one walked to that sofa unless the squid was there.

Arthur grabbed a book he had bought with him just for this, he had it's covers hid under some fabric. This way it looked like a self-made diary, but not in the girly way.

He opened it and begun scrolling through it. It was for the most part just text, but sometimes a few symbols and other guidelines for magic appeared. It looked rather innocent if you didn't look deeper into the actual content.

It was Arthur's book about dark magic. It's content was simple, bunch of spells, charms, and other interesting things for those who weren't satisfied with the more legal ones. Most of it fell under a more grey area than illegal, but if you looked long enough some more horrid things could be found.

He had owned the book for a while now, but none of his family knew about it. It was his hidden thing, the one thing that let him stand out.

Arthur was looking through the pages, in an effort to find something small to do. He wasn't planning on doing anything bad, honestly something closer to minor buffs or a demon to summon.

He heard as the only ones other than him got up, it was perfect timing if anything.

Arthur took about an hour to honestly decide upon something to do, he had never actually tried any of them. Going to Hogwarts was his first time being allowed to cast spells, so this was going to be his first attempt at something only he dared to do.

"Only I…" He thought to himself, but found himself doubting that assumption quickly. It wasn't as much of expecting to be the only one planning to do something illegal, more of a self-doubting idea in the back of his head. It could be that someone else had figured out how helpful these things could be, he might have a rival in dark arts too.

And then it hit him, he knew a perfect spell. It was a somewhat simple one, but it did have some quite negative effects on the user.

"Ostendente," the name alone sounded intriguing to him. The spell when casted right would give the user the ability to see the magical forces upon people. Examples being the power to see who carried an obsculiar, or had otherwise corrupted magic within them.

Arthur did question why a spell like that wasn't more popular, but looking at the side effects answered his question quickly.

It would make it's user un-able to sleep for about 3 days. Arthur stared at the page, un-sure if that was a good idea.

The likelihood of other dark magic users was too small, but then again he should start with something small for his first dark magic spell. The spell was explained as an un-noticeable, good for beginners, and even not that risky.

Being a scaredy-cat wasn't going to get Arthur anywhere, if he wanted to be the greatest he needed to do what he needed to do.

He grabbed his wand and got up.

The common room was dark, quiet, lonely, and somewhat cold. He was alone, and even he could barely see in front of him. The only light came through the lake, which was a green and icky colour. A passer-by would only see Arthur's silhouette against the dim green.

Arthur took a few steps to the more open part of the room, and held the book close so he could read it. He hadn't even learnt to cast the light spell, how was he going to pull this off?

His wand felt heavy in his hand, he was nervous. He was breaking the rules.

Arthur had decided to dabble in dark arts already a year ago, but actually doing it felt harder than he expected.

Honestly everything there had been harder than expected, if he backed out now he would have failed.

Arthur couldn't even give that thought the freedom to run wild, he gripped the wand tigther, lifted it up, and following the instructions he begun casting the spell.

It wasn't a difficult one just place the wand's tip on top of your left, and move it to the top of your right cheek while saying the spell.

He placed it on top of his left eye, while holding the book in his free hand. Apparently once the silver glow started, closing eyes would be extremely painful. Arthur did find it hard to not close them, with the sudden appearance of light in the dim room. He manage though, and soon said the spell in the closest to a normal talking voice he could.

The moment the wand touched his cheek, the silver light sparked just a bit more before fading. Arthur blinked his eyes as they adjusted back to the dark. Everything felt the same for most part, not counting the sudden light-headedness. He didn't freak out much because of it, because according to the book it was normal.

He stumbled back to his pile of books, and placed the fabric covered one under a few. Even if he wasn't going to be able to sleep, he might as well go lay down.

Once he arrived to the bed, he quickly realized that he in fact, was not able to sleep. Above it being impossible, It was also because of the fact that if he closed his eyes for too long he would hear whispering. He wasn't sure what the whispers were saying, but they were unsettling and forced Arthur to lay eyes open.

He would have to stay awake that night, and the next. Luckily the weekend was soon, he would just have to properly snooze on Sunday and it wouldn't affect him too much.

Arthur decided to just keep his hopes up for the possibility of what he would find out the next day.

 **SO  
SORRY FOR A HORRIBLE SPELL NAME**

 **But I like it so**

 **TAKE That? Feel free to suggest fixes.**

 **Hope you all enjoy this, and reviews would be appreciated! Though, please be soft, because I am an anxious mess.**

Still weekly updates.


	3. Those questionable kids

**So before we get into the chapter, I would like to apologise for the sudden hiatus/break thingy.**  
 **I shouldn't have expected myself to handle deadlines, haha. I hate schedules and so on, just not my thing.**  
 **Although, I hate when fanfics don't update like they should, so as an apology I'll post two chapters today. These are some of my favorites, so I hope they will suffice.**  
 **I think I'll just throw the idea of a schedule out the window, a weekly updating fanfic is just too good to be true, right? I'll just post whenever I get the feeling to do so. That won't mean once half a year though, so relax.**

 **Also I want to point out I miscaculated and actually tried to do math instead of just writing "Two days and nights" for the spells effecting timey-ness. So if you read it before I updated it or if I missed a part in the editing process.. uhm.**

 **But, without further ado, please enjoy some fanfiction? Pff**

* * *

In theory Ostendente didn't sound like an illegal spell, it seemed like something the ministry would use to aid it's purposes. Some sleepless nights couldn't have possibly held the ministry away from using something so useful.

Arthur sadly found quickly that in practise it wasn't as pleasant.

The spell took a while to properly kick in, kind of like a medicine. As the night progressed Arthur begun hearing silent whispers, which became louder and louder as the sun begun to rise. They reached a peak of something akin to someone talking at a room next door. He wasn't sure where the whispers ended and other people waking up and talking started. The only difference was that the whispers seemed to talk complete gibberish.

When Arthur was getting up he did found himself asking "What did you say?" only to find out that his fellow student hadn't said anything. If he didn't have a reputation of a weird loner already, he sure had it now.

Sadly enough, the whispers were only small part of the issues the spell bought up. The main point of the spell was to show magic as an actual see able thing, but nothing was written about it looking pleasing. Everyone around Arthur appeared to have a glow to them, and it wasn't just a small simple halo. Everyone was glowing like bright neon lights that felt horrid to look at. Everything also felt a bit red, but Arthur wasn't sure if it was just because his eyes hurt or if everything was actually tinted in red.

Arthur could recognise who was who only if he looked at them long enough, and as he walked into the common room a few girls accused him of staring. He did apologise, but the change from a dark green dungeon to a rave was starting to get onto his nerves quickly.

He was starting to have second thoughts on using the spell. Arthur could not attend class without burning his eyes at this rate, and the bright light was even worse with his tired eyes.

He wasn't as tired as he expected to be at that point, but only a few hours had passed and he had to stay awake for around two more nights. He didn't last in the common room for long, and returned quickly back to the mostly vacant sleeping area. There was only one other glowing student, which was horrible and a relief at the same time.

Arthur looked through his luggage. When he finally found what he was looking for, he tested it on the other student in the room. It seemed that covering his vision with a fabric reduced the intense lighting to nothing.

He should have figured that quicker from the fact that the students' close remained un-changed.

With a pointy hat atop his head, he returned to the now less filled lounge area. When he covered a part of his face with his books, and the hat, he could manage to walk around without looking like he was surrounded by glowing people.

Of course it was a trade which resulted in him looking very silly.

Arthur's morning shenanigans had resulted in him entering the great hall just in time to have it almost empty.

He decided to take the time to figure out who the people around the room were, as they didn't seem to notice his staring.

There was one hufflepuff, sitting alone, and two gryffindors screaming. It was entirely possible that the screaming was the whispers though, but Arthur wouldn't put it past Gryffindors to scream gibberish.

There was also two other Gryffindors, of course they would be the ones late at the table. Arthur didn't recongise the first one, but with a slight squint of eyes the chin-length hair became obvious.

The person must have been Vlad.

At first Arthur just dismissed it, Vlad wasn't any of his business. Something was off about the light Vlad was radiating, it wasn't bright and white like the others. Not even tinted a bit with blue like Stephan or Mike.

Vlad's magic had a weird greyness to it, and in the middle of it all was a strong black.

Arthur was certainly surprised, did Vlad use Dark arts? No, _use_ was too light. A soul would only turn so dark if it was corrupt with dark magic, Arthur was sure of it. No other option made sense in his mind.

He noticed something else off about Vlad as well- it was like a small dim rope that seemed to be floating through the wall at a slight upward angle. It was as if Vlad was connected to something with magic?

Arthur couldn't study it too long, as it seemed that Vlad noticed his staring.

It was hard to decipher what he did, but it seemed like an angry getting up and walking away.

Arthur bit his bread to hide how embarrassed he was by the encounter.

When he later walked to the class, he found that the whispering got louder the closer he got to the others. How strange.

He leant against the wall, hiding behind the hat. His whole class was literally very colourful.

Then he heard the usual footsteps which signalled that Lukas had arrived to join the rest of the class from wherever he spent his time.

Arthur hadn't actually thought much of it, but where did Lukas spend his time? Apparently the common room was too busy, huh?

He didn't have the rights to really complain about Lukas, Arthur himself spent most of his time wondering around aimlessly or doing absolutely nothing.

He lifted his hat a bit, the bright light was horribly un-comfortable from the darkness.

He located Lukas quickly, as he seemed to be the brightest of them all. His magic looked intense, with a bit of a blue tint. Arthur could have not recognised it was Lukas, if he didn't wear a strange hairclip everyday which could be almost soon from behind the brightness.

Speaking of the hairclip, it seemed that Lukas actually took it off. He was holding it, examining it.

The hairclip did not look like it's usual metallic cross, but a dark grey fire.

Arthur was sure it was enchanted with something, and clearly not just normal magic.

Honestly Arthur did not expect to find this many things that weren't just purely white magic, he had expected to just see glowing people all day. It was somewhat rewarding, but also raised way too many questions.

Why did both Vlad and Lukas have grey magic somehow around them, and did others? If Brook and Malfoy turned out to hold dark magic as well, he would think he was a dark magic magnet.

Arthur then noticed something else peculiar; Lukas had stopped examining the hair clip, and begun looking around the others.

It was rare for Lukas to lift his head from the book, but now he was actually showcasing interest in the students around him.

Then Lukas walked through the crowd.

Arthur was absolutely baffled, Lukas actually waked through their class. He didn't bump into anyone, but he didn't walk as far away from everyone as possible. That was new.

He wasn't sure if Lukas found what he wanted, and he seemed to be placing the hairclip back on his head.

Arthur decided to not think too much into it at that point.

The worst part of that day was the classes, he was surrounded by people, the whispers were loud and clear, and he could not concentrate one bit.

When he finally returned to walking back to the dungeon, he had a headache, was tired, everything felt irritating and he wasn't sure of what to do since he wasn't going to be able to sleep.

He had decided to not go to the common room yet, he would wait for later so it was more empty.

And so he found himself sitting in one of the dark corners in the dungeon. It was genuinely the most moment of the day, because it was dark, mostly quiet, and let him relax slightly.

He had taken the time to read more about Ostendente, and realized that maybe he should have read a bit ahead. The part that explained the negative effects wasn't at all everything he should have expected, as the rest was written in the "Person specific issues" part.

Apparently Arthur was one of the people who would have mostly auditory issues, and that they would be getting worse the longer he remained under the spells effects. The first night would be whispers, after that it would turn into talking. It wasn't going to just end there either, but it wasn't clear which of the following Arthur would be forced to experience.

The auditory issues would apparently branch in two ways depending on the individual. Either the last night would be either actual shouting, or turn into singing.

Arthur was sure he didn't want shouting, but singing sounded like it would get unnerving quickly if it was something more ghostly.

He was still un-sure of why the spell was actually banned, other than it's awful side effects. Dark magic was usually described as magic that would harm others and/or give it's user and un-fair advantage. This seemed to only cause harm to the user, which didn't really fit the selfish description of the dark arts.

Arthur looked around the dim hallway, still questioning how they got it to look so green. Then, he saw it again.

It was a small greyish glowing line, the one that Vlad had. It seemed to be sticking out of the ceiling, moving progressively downwards.

Arthur decided to properly investigate it, and begun following it. As he walked alongside it, the darker it's colour became. Yet it was always clearly visible.

The page for the spell had a graph that Arthur hadn't noticed in the darkness before, that showcased the meaning of certain colours. As obvious as it was, the blacker the magic the more "corrupt" the magic was.

White meant magic that was pure, barely used. Blue was apparently the colour for more experienced spell casters.

Red was the colour for things and people who were affected by magic, which explained why Arthur had felt like the whole school was tinted in red. He decided to blame the redness as the cause of his headache.

Malfoy was also red.

Arthur had finally reached the other end of the line, and it was connected to Malfoy who was just entering the common room.

He had gotten a very small look at him from around the corner, but it was very clear how the line connected to Malfoy's right hand and looked as if it corrupted his hand red with a light black glow around it.

Arthur looked at the now closed entrance to the Slytherin common room, the line was floating through it.

He had read about lines, apparently they meant a spell. He had seen them in class with Stephan using Wingarium leviosa on a piece of paper. It appeared only for the moment the wand was making the item float, but the instant the connection was lost it disappeared.

So in other words, a spell was active between Vlad and Malfoy. Arthur was also quite sure the spell was instigated by Vlad, because of the colours.

Arthur sat down to where he had been staring the entrance from, there was a lot to think, he might as well do it now that he had nothing to actually do. Usually he would be doing his homework at this point, but he didn't even properly know what was assigned because of the whispers.

Why was Lukas' hairclip cursed, why would Vlad cast a spell against Malfoy and why was it that his magic was so dark? Arthur didn't feel like he had gained anything but questions all day, not that he had much of them to begin with.

The only answers he come up with was that either Lukas himself made his hairclip into a charm, or it was cursed by someone else. Thought Lukas must have known about it, if he purposefully carried it around? Why would he walk with it through a crowd? Was it some kind of a detector?

Arthur's head hurt, concentrating was already difficult, but with so many questions it all felt un-organized. He hadn't even given the time to think about Vlad.

If black meant corrupt magic, did it mean he was corrupt? Vlad did seem like he was hiding something, but Arthur thought it was just how much he disliked him. As farfetched it was, it could be that Vlad was a dark wizard.

Though Vlad's magic seemed calm, while the book said that corrupt magic looked like it was tearing the person apart into itty bitty pieces of pain and agony. Though it is possible that Arthur doesn't know what itty bitty pieces of pain and agony look like.

Honestly speaking, Malfoy's right hand seemed like the itty bitty agony the book talked about.

Arthur was not the best detective, and all this information just didn't seem like it fit together that well. He was sure there was some explanation, but nothing he could come up with at that point.

"Mr. Kirkland." A sophisticated voice with a held-back feeling and menacing presence suddenly echoed behind Arthur.

Arthur turned his head towards the corner, and before him a tall figure looked down at him. It was his potion teacher, Severus Snape.

Arthur got up from sitting on the floor in an instant. He didn't exactly fear the head of his house, but his figure was menacing to any 11 year old. An 11 year old who actually has done something illegal would in theory find him even scarier.

"Oh-" He started, his face glowed with surprise and tension. Snape seemed to be glowing with a dark blue, especially around a very specific spot. Other than that he seemed a more of a brighter blue. It was a bit more comfortable to look at than the bright white his classmates were. "Good evening, Professor." The weirder part of his magic, was that instead of whispers it sounded very different.

"Evening." He said in a very un-interested tone. "Is the floor comfortable?"

"Oh- Well." Arthur felt himself tense up, he had to act natural. "The common room was too noisy, so I came here."

"The library is always an option."

"I don't know where that is." Arthur lied, of course.

"I see." Snape noticed the lies Arthur was spilling easily, they had already been given assignments specifically to teach how to do your own research in the library. "I thought you got a good grade on your research assignment."

Arthur let out a very strange sound.

"I would like you to join me in my office, mr. Kirkland."

"..Am I in trouble?" Arthur asked, trying to sound innocent through the anxious tension building up in his head.

Snape turned around to lead the way. "Let's find out."

They entered a dimly lit office, though it would have probably been much darker if Snape wasn't glowing. Arthur would have possibly been humoured by that, if he wasn't bothered by a headache, and a fear of being caught.

Arthur nervously moved in his seat, while Snape quite casually moved some paper aside to make sure nothing was between them. "Would you consider yourself a strong magic user?" No eye contact was made.

He shrugged, he felt and awkward smile for on his face. It felt and looked forced, but he genuinely had no control over it. "I suppose, my family has always been full of strong people."

"Stubborn at least." Snape commented, Arthur could only imagen what Andrew had done in his class. He wasn't sure how Owen would appear stubborn to any one, though.

"Do you know a spell called 'soluserix'?"

"No, professor." Arthur did not know the spell.

"It is a spell used to higher the ability of someone's magic output. One of the side effects make it more difficult to perform precise magic." Snape explained. "It's banned because of how it lends the power from others, and negatively affects their performance."

Arthur stared at Snape, confused. Why was he telling him this?

"I noticed in class that your potion was loaded with a far too powerful spell for your age."

"I see." Arthur did not get it, he wasn't doing anything special other than the vision spell. Wait-

"..And the other's underperformed."

Arthur felt like his throat was full of tar. He tried to hide the fact, but it was pitifully obvious.

"Is Soluerix illegal?" He asked, a little bit too late to not sound suspicious.

"You won't be in too much trouble, as long as you don't do it again."

"..I used it." Arthur confessed, even though it was a blatant lie. What else was he supposed to do?

Snape finally instigate eye contact.

Arthur looked back apprehensively. His headache felt worse every second he was in the office, for who knows why.

"50 points from Slytherin and you'll be joining me in detention on Monday, Mr. Kirkland."

Arthur nodded.

Snape turned away again, seemingly writing it down so he would remember it better. "I do hope my house hasn't allowed a ruler breaker to join. It makes it unfair for others who want to win points."

"I understand, Professor." Arthur sighed, he did get of out this with surprisingly little consequences, but it didn't feel good.

After they discussed the details, Arthur was free to go. He walked to the office door. "Also, Kirkland."

"What is it?" he turned to look at him from the doorway.

"If the Slytherin common room was loud, I would know about it."

"..How nice." Arthur mumbled and walked to the Slytherin common room like a good kid, and it was not very loud.

He spent the evening sitting on his bed, reading about his current situation. As he expected, the strange magical issue he had been punished for was once against something he had not read about yet. He decided to properly read all of the spell's information next time.

Apparently for people who get shouting as a negative effect, the spell buffs their abilities by lending the other people's power, which was also the reason it was illegal. Arthur sighed, luckily it was not the worst of the side effects. Singing would block other people's magic completely, and make their hands explode. Not to mention the effects for the people with visual hallucinations, those he didn't even dare to think about more than once.

At least Arthur knew to expect shouting.

Once the other Slytherins' had come to sleep, Arthur returned to the main common room. He had no reason to stay on the bed, and here he could be a bit louder.

The whispers had turned into speaking, but it wasn't as bad since all of the talking came from behind walls. He was sure that during the day it would be worse.

He leaned back on the chair, keeping his eyes closed would result in the talking being louder. He didn't mind it that much anymore though.

Arthur's head hurt, he felt tired, and his brain was filled with so many thoughts that he didn't know what do with them.

Somehow though, he didn't feel bad. He was somewhat blissful, Arthur had actually done something. It wasn't like he planned, it didn't give him an edge above everyone (other than as an accident), but he did _something_.

He had learnt secrets of others, and found out that he can in fact use dark magic without being found out. He wasn't sure how any of this would help him long term, but he wasn't going to worry about that now.

There was something exciting about the whole experience. Arthur had a whole book filled with possibilities. This was all his to discover, and no-one else could take what set him apart.

Without a warning the Common room entrance opened, and from the dark hallway, a bright white light with blue tones shined into Arthur's eyes.

Lukas walked in, carrying his light blue book with golden decorations. When the boy noticed Arthur he moved like he was surprised, even though Arthur couldn't see his expression properly.

They were soundlessly looking at each other in the darkness, a very light tension built up.

"You know we're not allowed outside of the common room before morning, right?" Arthur said, he wasn't exactly thinking straight; he might as well try to talk to Lukas for once. It might even resolve the situation.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" He answered, in a voice that was toneless, bland, and worried.

"I'm not tired."

"You look like it."

Arthur squinted his eyes, partly because Lukas was bright and hurt them, but mostly as a reply. "Where were you?"

"The bathroom."

"There's a bathroom in the common room."

"I didn't know." He said: "I'll look for it in the morning."

Either Lukas was a ridiculously good liar compared to Arthur, or he was serious. "How did you not know that?"

Lukas shrugged, it looks a bit funny when a ball of light with clothes on shrugs. "We've been here for under a month. There's no way I could know where everything is."

"Yeah, I guess." Arthur wasn't entirely convinced, but Lukas was very convincing. He had no reason to start doubting him.

Lukas then wordlessly walked past Arthur.

"Where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going?"

Arthur had nothing to really say to that. it was harsh, but they were both tired. Arthur still had no idea what to feel about Lukas, especially now that he knew something was off with that hairclip.

He leant back in his seat. Even if he talked to a teacher about seeing Lukas they would probably believe his excuse, and Lukas could out him being up so late.

If it turned out that Lukas wasn't in the bathroom though, where was he?

Arthur had so many questions, but the main questions was where to start.

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 **\\(ö)/ ?!**


	4. Oh

**Have fun!**

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Arthur laid on the sofa, with a hat atop his face. His head was screaming at him, in a metaphorical sense of course. What wasn't metaphorical was the talking, both his classmates wandering the common room and the horrid curse he had subjected himself to.

At night he felt confident, but that changed when the sun decided to show its icky face. Luckily to him, the dungeon's windows had dark water between them and the blazing ball of glowing misery. Sadly that wasn't enough when his "fellow" Slytherins were at least as bright. Arthur was sure the glow had gotten brighter as the whispers turned into talking, but it could just be that his eyes were sick of all the light.

He watched as the light balls walked around through the filter that was his hat, he wasn't sure who was who, and he couldn't care less.

His head hurt, his thoughts flew around like they were in a hurricane and he couldn't sleep. Arthur moved his leg a bit, but even that felt like a chore.

"Hey, is that Arthur under there?" Suddenly Arthur saw a shiny-ass hand lifting his hat, and looking at him. The voice felt patronizing, bothersome, and of course, arrogant, at least to his ears.

Arthur left out a grumpy mumble and turned his face away quickly from the horrid light.

"Hey, you okay?" Andew kept insisting on a conversation. "You look like a bat."

"Leave me alone." Arthur stuffed his face against the sofa's back.

Andrew's voice was surprisingly calm. "Do you have a hangover or something?"

"I'm underage."

"Didn't stop you last new years." He chuckled lightly.

"Whatever."

"Hey, seriously, are you okay?" There was slight worry in Andrew's voice, it was something rare but not in a way that would make Arthur feel any better. "You usually have all these long explanations on how I'm wrong, but now you're just slapping some quick answers."

"I'm busy."

"Laying there looking wasted?"

"Yeah." Arthur pulled his hat more over his face, Andrew's glow was similar to snape's, just lighter.

"Do I need to go look for Owen?"

"Why would you?"

"Well you're clearly not going to tell me what's up."

Arthur remained silent.

"I'll go get him."

Arthur tensed up. "No- Why would you?"

"You're clearly not feeling well, and I'm not going to let you be a broken trash bag on a couch."

"It's a Sofa-" Arthur felt like he just had slapped himself, god was he tired if that was what he prioritized. "I'm fine- I just slept badly. I'll get up."

Andrew watched as his little wimpy brother get up to sit still shielding his eyes, clearly not believing him. "I know what tired looks like, you're pretty damn far worse lookin'."

"Whatever, I'll manage without your stupid help."

"Jesus Christ you're being worse than usual."

"Well _sorry_ that a horrid headache makes me a bit more pissed off!"

"I'm getting Owen."

"Fine- Whatever." Arthur prepared to actually move. "But, I don't need you or him." Arthur forced himself to stand up, and it did not feel good. It was like his legs were heavy and made of gummy bears, if Andrew's annoyance wasn't there to motivate him that would have been enough for him to topple back down.

His spite was enough to prompt him to walk, even though it felt like walking on broken stick of butter- Whatever that felt like. Honestly Arthur was too tired to think of any good analogies.

"Where are you going?!" Andrew grabbed his hand, only to see his little brother let out an actual scream of agony.

At that moment Arthur realized that he had not touched anyone skin-to-skin in a very long time, only some robed shoulders to shoulders when bumping in the halls.

Thank god he hadn't, because it was the worst feeling he had ever felt. Andrew's hand was like a burning hellfire that was surging into his whole body from the hand. His head felt like it was about to explode from noise, screeching and screaming.

Andrew let go immediately, and stared at him eyes wide.

Arthur had kneeled down and held his hands on his face, letting out the sound of muffled sobbing. He wasn't the type to cry, but god was he tired. He had felt a horrid pain, his head hurt, no-way was he going to be able to keep tears from rushing out.

He was just an 11 year old, anyways.

The other Slytherins in the common room stared from the side, some tried to walk over to help but Andrew stopped them.

"Is he okay?"

"I'll handle this." He assured them, and kneeled down closer to Arthur, who moved quickly away from him like a scared animal.

"Arthur, I'm sorry- I didn't know it would hurt you."

Arthur didn't say anything.

"Hey- uh, can I help you?"

"No."

"But-"

"It's your fault-" He inhaled sharply. " I'm seriously just fucking tired."

"It couldn't have been my fault- I didn't use any magic."

"Well me neither, it had to be you." Arthur was a horrid liar, but something about crying was awfully convincing.

"Should we get Madam Pomfrey-" Some other Slytherin spoke.

"No." Arthur got up, Andrew tried to stop him but flinched back when he realized he was going to touch him again. "Not for me anyways-"

Andrew stood up, towering over Arthur. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty fucking sure." Arthur mumbled under his hat, it was a miserable sight. "Just leave me alone."

"But-"

"I just need a nap." He said and begun walking to the direction of the sleeping area.

Andrew didn't rebel, much to everyone's surprise.

Arthur disappeared from their field of vision, and only then would the other Slytherins dared to question Andrew. Luckily for Arthur there was only a few of them: around ten, and only two were in his class.

He didn't hear what Andrew said after he had stubbornly ran from the situation, all he knew was that Madam Pomfrey could very easily appear before him at any moment and find out about his experiments with the dark arts.

This was not his day.

He fell on his bed, everything ached. He closed his eyes and decided to just ignore everything, he was in trouble anyways, he might as well try to enjoy the mess before it became even worse.

Then the talking turned into shouting. Thank lord, he thought.

The shouting was the angry type, and honestly Arthur could relate. It was not enjoyable, but at least it wasn't something cheery and fun.

Arthur found the bed very comfortable, luckily the spell didn't take that away from him. It was like he was in a hole full of spikes watching a movie about a comfy pillow. On second thought, it didn't sound as nice as he was finding it.

After a long while of completely spacing out into the weirdest places imaginable, Arthur realized that at least an hour had gone by.

Did Andrew not get Madam Pomfrey?

He decided to keep laying there, he had no reason to really get up and check or anything.

How long was he going to be forced to be affected by this spell anyways? The effects were apparently two days, as in 48 hours. He casted it around 1 am, so supposedly he would be free tonight.

And to his surprise, rest of the day was quiet, and calm. No-one came to bother him, and even though he was forced to endure shouting, a headache, and a red tint that seemed to be getting worse by the hour, he was allowed to lay there.

He was sure his classmates were told about his breakdown, no-one was going to let such a subject pass in conversations. Maybe that's why no-one came to talk to him. People did pass him in the sleeping area, but no-one said anything expect to each other. They possibly thought he was sleeping.

If only, he sighed and hugged his pillow, he felt extremely detached from everything.

Then he found people arriving to the area to sleep. "Oh" he thought, it was must have turned to night time already.

His pillow had become too frail to cover the bright people at that point, and he decided to get up and return downstairs. If there was going to be too many people he would just lock himself into the bathroom or something.

It was a bad idea, his legs were like heavy metal noodles. Somehow he did find his way on a couch, and no-one was there to bother him. The fireplace was out, the sun was down, it was almost nice.

If only there was less shouting.

He still had to keep his eyes shut, the room had turned from green to red from the once a tint intensifying.

Arthur actually felt a little afraid, what he had read about the spells effects ending didn't sound nice. It wasn't something as simple as it slowly fading away. It was intensifying, and apparently planning to leave in the most painful way- no, actually "excruciating" was the direct word used in the book.

Arthur just hoped he wasn't going to scream and cry like the little baby he was again.

The red was getting worse and worse every second, Arthur knew it was coming.

Strange enough the book didn't have much of a mention about touching others, only a 'it stings a bit.' Could it be that the book's author was joking, or didn't have the same experience as him? Strange, since Arthur knew that the Author himself used this book as a gui-

Ow.

Suddenly Arthur felt his eyes hurting, it was only a little sting, but it seemed to be getting worse.

Then he heard the common room entrance open, it seemed that luck wasn't on his side at all.

Arthur forced his eyes shut, and crawled himself into a little human knot. No position was comfortable, his eyes felt like they were on fire, and it was as if he was shaking.

The steps from the entrance were becoming louder and louder, they had been going on for a while, but he could only hear them so far through the shouting.

Speaking of the shouting, it had turned into screaming and with his eyes closed it was louder. Then the steps became loud enough to be heard through the intense screaming.

Arthur felt a sudden finger being placed on his hand that he used to cover his eyes. He flinched and let out a supressed sound of pain.

The person wasn't saying anything, at first, but then Arthur heard something that sounded like Latin through the screams. And in that moment it was like all of his symptoms rapidly increased, it was like he was being ripped into shreds.

Then, it stopped. He wasn't in pain anymore. He was still shaking, sweaty, felt tears run on his face.

He wiped his face with his sleeve, he felt pathetic. Arthur had become a broken tired mess in such a short while, it was horrid. Yet, somehow, somewhere deep in the back of his head, he felt a sense of relief. He opened his eyes, fearing what he would see.

Before him, stood a boy with a face that was filled with shock, dread, but also in some strange way: concern.

And all those emotions were worn by Lukas. Not a shiny mass of blue light, but Lukas.

Arthur stared at the boy in disbelief, questions formed in his mind and nothing was making sense.

Lukas' hand was tightly around a wand, and the moment their eyes met he turned away. It looked like he tried to return to his regular emotionless expression, but he seemed to be failing.

Arthur tried to gather himself, but the only thing he could let out was a quiet whisper: "…What did you do?"

Lukas seemed hesitant to speak at all, but he would have felt worse not answering "I quickened the process."

"How?"

"It's a spell."

"But how did you know-"

"Know what?"

Arthur was left speechless, Lukas seemed to prefer it that way as he began walking away as if in a hurry.

"Wait-" Arthur let his whispers turn into something closer to a normal voice.

"What?" Lukas stopped and turned to look at him, seemingly angry, even though it didn't feel like it.

"Thank you.." Arthur said, holding his head, it all felt heavy.

Lukas looked at him but not for long as his eyes wondered to who knows where .

"Whatever." his voice felt broken and shaken, even though it was just a whisper. After that, Lukas left, and Arthur didn't say anything.

He was free.

Arthur was free from the spell.

* * *

 **This chapter started off with the idea of giving Arthur a break because he was really not having a good time.**  
 **Then I actually wrote it.**

 **The chapter name is based on my reaction to my own writing.**  
 **Meta.**

 **Hope you had fun, tho. ;)  
**


	5. The boys with the books

**I don't know if anyone is reading this anymore, pff.**  
 **I am still gonna write it anyways.**

 **I'll post 2 new chapters today.**

* * *

Arthur woke up.

It felt _incredible_.

His head didn't throb with pain, and no gibberish shouting anywhere, not even a whisper. He was laying on a comfy bed in silence, refreshed and free. He had never felt as good waking up with a headache.

He got up to sit, he was alone in the room. His non-electric watch on the table said 1 pm. Arthur wasn't even surprised. Honestly he could throw himself on the bed and sleep more, but as much as it tempted him he should probably get his attachment to reality back in check.

Arthur had no-idea what his classmates knew about the whole situation, if Andrew actually told anyone, or even what he got for homework.

Above all that was also his findings with the spell, even though he had somewhat forgotten them during the intense pain, he still didn't know why Vlad was glowing grey and black, or why he and Malfoy seemed to be connected.

Not to mention Lukas.

Arthur had lost all ability to place Lukas anymore, but he was sure he wasn't just some cold distant person. The concern Lukas showed to him was real, the boy really was troubled for him.

It was decided then, he was going to figure out what was up with Lukas.

He dressed up, went down to the common room, and noticed that a few of his classmates were spending the Sunday there. They all turned their heads at his for a moment, but quickly turned away, they seemed to realize how rude it was.

Arthur begun walking through the room, he should be able to attend lunch at least, no-reason to get bothered by his classmate, though he was going to anyways.

Then he was stopped by Stephan, his classmate. "Hey- Arthur, you okay?"

"Huh?" He turned to look at the Sofa next to him, Stephan sat on it with his friends.

"You okay? We heard you had a.. Meltdown or something"

"Oh." Arthur looked away for a bit, trying to place his thoughts. "That."

"I heard you screamed-" One of the boys said, but was shushed by Stephan. It seemed that he had achieved the alpha status.

"I guess I did." Arthur shrugged. "I was just really tired."

"You seemed pretty tired on Friday, have you not been sleeping properly?" One of the two girls in the group spoke.

"I did?" Arthur was actually surprised they had even noticed his existence. "I didn't even notice."

"Well you're okay now, right?"

"Yeah, I am feeling a lot better." Arthur replied.

"I hope so." Stephan smiled to Arthur. "Where am I going to get my homework answers from if you're sick." He laughed, it was quite uplifting.

"Speaking of homework, I'd like to know what we got."

"Oh-"

After fishing around the group Arthur got a small note with hastily written list of the homework and pages, it was surprisingly efficient.

With the note safely in his pocket, he made his way to the great hall. There was still food being served, thank lord.

He sat down, and ate. He only then realized how hungry he truly was, he hadn't eaten anything on Saturday. He hadn't ever eaten that much for lunch, expect maybe Christmas at grandma's.

Arthur didn't even notice who really were there with him, and he didn't really care. Food was delicious, he was hungry, it was good enough.

Surprisingly, his Father's owl flew in. It was a noble looking brown owl, not too old or too young. It had a small white face, and the only thing that would make it a non-perfect owl was it's wooden leg. It was perfect in his Dad's opinion though, and Arthur couldn't help but to agree.

His Father did promise that he would send them letters during the year, so it didn't even come to Arthur's mind that there could be anything bad there.

Until he actually read the letter the owl brought.

 _"_ _Arthur, this is your Father writing._

 _I heard you're sick, and hope that someone clarifies HOW, a cold? A flu? Seriously._

 _I thought I told you all to be more specific with your statements, I know writing is hard but for god's sake. I'm writing this letter to three people after all! Of course personalized to all of you, why send three if not. Also no, don't send me a "That seems like a hazzle you should focus on one" no, that isn't going to happen._

 _Anyways, please tell me what Owen means by "sick," I do not enjoy being worried like this without even knowing the details._

 _Also you will be coming home for Christmas, right?_

\- Dad"

Arthur stared at the paper. His brother's really went and told dad.

That's not okay.

His father would accept a "Oh a cold, okay." but that didn't change the fact the whole situation was spiralling out of control. At this rate everyone would know Arthur had a weird meltdown, if they didn't already.

Also apparently Andrew told Owen, why worry him too? Arthur knew that he had acted in a very worrying way, but this was just embarrassing.

He decided to fold the letter and placed it in his pocket, two papers in his pocket was a new record.

After finishing his breakfast he left the great hall.

He decided to go find Owen and Andrew, hopefully he could explain that there was no reason to worry.

He began walking around, he had never actually tried to find his brother before. Had he even seen Owen all year? Maybe 7th years were just very busy.

Arthur climbed up a few stairs, and realized he didn't even know where he was. It was some small hallway with a lot of paintings; they seemed to be minding their own business.

Arthur walked forwards and around a corner, only to find the corner just leading to a big painting the size of the wall. Of course he would find a dead end.

A very small painting next to him abruptly whispered "What are you doing?"

Arthur turned to look at her "Getting lost, apparently."

"Yeah, clearly." She mumbled.

"What's up with the big painting?"

The girl in the painting rolled her eyes. "It's pretty complicated."

"..Oh." He looked at it for a moment. "Does it usually have someone?"

"The Key man, the master of whereabouts" She explained.

"Who?"

"You really don't know?"

"Nope."

"Yeah, of course. You non-paintings are always so oblivious to us. How about for once you do your own freaking research." The girl angrily slammed the table of her painting and ran off.

Arthur just kind of watched her anger escalate. After another glance at the painting, he decided to leave the weird hallway.

The large painting of the hallway stayed in his mind even after leaving, though. The dead end's painting was made to look almost like a mirror of the preceding walkway. But instead of a hall of paintings, each square was a door. And one extremely large one in the far back.

What a weird thing.

After looking for a bit more, Arthur got rather frustrated and gave up.

He returned to the dungeons to properly do some homework. As he walked down from his bedside to the main area, he noticed that a lot of people had shown up, most being his classmates.

Arthur found himself being bombarded with questions, and decided that it was not the ideal place to study.

He shook them off and decided to head to the library, as it would be the best choice. Arthur sure was doing a lot of walking that day. He had an urge to complain about it, but no-one to complain to. This annoyed him further.

On top of that Arthur actually found himself rather surprised of how little he used the library. It always felt like he would be the type to enjoy a calming evening in the library reading.

He got up to the first floor, only to notice his brother right at the stairs to the dungeon. Arthur felt succesful.

"Oh- Hey." Andrew spoke to him, it was actually surprising he still would talk to him.

"Hi." Arthur answered, it was quick and simple.

"You feeling any better?"

"Yes. The nap was very helpful."

"That's nice." Andrew seemed genuinely surprised. "I talked to Pomfrey by the way."

"Oh."

"I didn't mention you." He glanced away as he said it.

It was Arthur's turn to be surprised; there was no good reason to not tell about it to Pomfrey. "Why did you go there then?"

"I go my hand checked."

"Ah."

"She said it was a bit stiff, too much writing apparently."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah."

Neither of them were looking at each other anymore, it was just a hideously awkward silence.

"Do you know where Owen usually is?"

Andrew looked at him for a moment, somewhat grateful the silence was cut by Arthur. "I usually find him in the Owlery."

"The Owlery?"

"West tower."

"Why would he be there?"

"I don't know, apparently it relaxes him."

Arthur kept insisting with a weird look, but Andrew just shrugged.

Afterwards they departed, Arthur returned to his journey towards the library.

It was one of the rare places he properly knew the location of. Within a few minutes he arrived to the paper smelling, quiet area.

He had been there only twice, firstly by Professor Snape's assignment made for making sure they knew how to research, and a second one "the good of transfiguration" assigned by McGonagall. Arthur walked straight to the back, where he had sat before. There was a very nice quiet table which almost never had anyone else even close by.

Surprisingly enough, Lukas was there. He was reading his small blue book with golden decorations.

"Oh-" Arthur let out the moment he realized this. "I didn't expect you to be here."

"Uh-huh."

"What are you up to?"

"Reading."

"What are you reading about?"

"Boats."

Arthur tilted his head a bit, tapping his fingers against his books. "You must really like boats if you've been reading about them all year."

"Ecstatic." He closed his book, as a signal that he was going to read somewhere Arthur-less.

"You certainly don't seem to be that interested in chitchat."

Lukas held the book against his chest. his replies were as sharp as usual: "Not at all."

"Me neither." Arthur shrugged, much like Andrew. "But hey, we can talk about a lot of other things, huh?"

"That's not a good thing."

"And why is that?"

".. You don't know me, and I don't know you." He turned his head towards Arthur, and their eyes met. "And I wish to keep it that way."

"But why?"

"It is none of your business." He walked past Arthur.

Arthur was seeing a pattern, and did not want accept it repeating. He grabbed Lukas' hand, but he shook his off instantly. His eyes looked fierce when they met his for a split second, and somewhat troubled. It clearly didn't hurt him like it did Arthur, but it didn't seem like something he appreciated.

Worse of all was that such a sudden movement had forced Lukas' fingers to slip on his book, and one of the golden decorations had moved drastically up.

The Blue of the book had quickly transformed into a black, and the golden decorations to silver.

Lukas looked horrified, his eyes wider than they had been before that. He quickly forced the golden piece back to where it belonged, but Arthur had already had the chance to read the title.

"Research diaries of Sable Edge, volume 2."

"No way."

"What?" Lukas' voice was sharp, stressed and far from his usual elegant detachment.

"Sable Edge, the dark arts researcher." Arthur looked like he had been knocked on the head with a ham. "You have one of her research diaries?!"

"Quiet." Lukas hushed anxiously, they were in a library after all.

"I thought they were all burnt." Arthur whispered. "How do you have one?"

"It's none of your business."

"But-"

"If you tell anyone, I will tell everyone you used Ostendente."

Arthur stared Lukas speechlessly. He knew the spell, he had Edge's diary, he was like him. "I have Guttuso's diary-"

Lukas snapped "Everyone already talks rumours about you, they'll believe me above you. If you don't want the truth out you'll stop talking to me."

Arthur shut his mouth.

Lukas walked off, leaving him in the library. The quiet of pages being turned, and slight coughs and whispers made him feel un-easier than he hoped.

He decided focus on homework, yeah. Just homework , he can think about this later.  
It wasn't exactly a success, but he did get his homework done. The thoughts of the whole weekend rushed in his mind, he had really gotten into a bad situation.

The sun had set when Arthur finally packed his books into a pile and walked out of the library. He might as well check the Owlery.

With a little help from McGonagall, he found the West tower and the entrance to the Owlery.

There Owen was, sitting in a owl poop lacking spot watching some of the owls.

"Hey." Arthur greeted him, raising his hand. It felt pretty chilly there without any windows.

"Arthur!" Owen said in disbelief, and got right on up. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, I guess." He shrugged. "I got a letter from dad."

"Oh." Owen rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I panicked."

"Did Andrew tell you?"

"Yeah." Owen bit his lip. "I got worried, but you seem okay now."

"I was just tired, okay?"

"If you say so."

"And you'll tell dad?"

"…If you want me to."

"Yeah, I would appreciate it."

"Okay then." He gave him an un-sure nod, and glance back at the owls.

"Why are you watching Owls anyways?"

"It's calming."

"Yeah, poop totally calms people."

"Maybe you'll get it at a later date." He said, still focusing on the winged creatures.

"Andrew clearly doesn't."

"He does, he just won't admit it." Owen smirked a bit.

"Well that's nice."

There was a bit of silence. Owen and Arthur had always had a very bare bones sibling relationship, Owen made sure all subjects would be covered and Arthur didn't find even a single reason to sass him. Arthur enjoyed the change of pace compared to his other brothers, especially Connor.

"Have you made any friends?" Owen looked at Arthur now, not as intently as the owls but Arthur appreciated it.

"Uuh, it's a work in progress. I guess"

"No rush, not everyone makes friends just like that."

"..Do you have any friends?"

Owen let out a very confusing laugh. "Yeah, I think so."

"..Other than owls."

"Other than Owls, yes."

Arthur couldn't help but to return a slight smile, it wasn't anything bit- but Owen seemed to like it."Well, okay then. I'll trust you."

"Dorothy seems to be wanting a letter from you, by the way."

"Oh yeah, I'll probably have one next morning."

"Okay."

The chatter continued a few moments more, but Arthur left quite soon after.

Arthur felt confused, when walking back to the dungeon, especially about Lukas. He knew about Dark arts, and practised them. It was obvious from the hairclip. Why would he not want to share such a hobby with others? Was Arthur weird for wanting that?

He did suppose that maybe others just aren't as easy to trust as you.

It still didn't answer Arthur what was Lukas' goal, or what the hair clip did. Did even Arthur have a goal? Why did he care Lukas knows Sable Edge, anyways?

He was in a very messy situation and had no idea how to properly deal with it.

Arthur begun thinking about Lukas' threat, he wanted to tell everyone about the spell he used. Which in fact was illegal and a ton of proof against him.

Arthur knew about Lukas' hairclip though, which could also be looked into. If Arthur found it as a dark charm, he would have the same level of blackmail against him.

He had a plan.

He was going to get that hairclip.

He walked up to the common room, quickly gave the password of "Superior blood" and walked in.

Luckily his sleeping schedule was so messed up that he could stay up long enough to properly go after Lukas.

He sat on the sofa, and begun preparing. It seemed that his classmates had calmed down with the questions, probably because Stephan was now doing something weird on a table.

From what Arthur could gather, Lukas appeared into the Common room around 1-4 am, always with his book and wand. If he spent most of his time in the library, he had to leave it around the time they had to go to bed or he would be caught. So where did he go to after that, other than the bathroom which wasn't a likely option anymore.

Where would he go to at night if not the common room? Arthur had no-idea really. He wasn't much of a rule breaker, maybe he had to ask someone.

He looked around; did he know any rule breakers?

At that moment Stephan broke the table with his weight, and Arthur found his rule breaker.

Once Professor Snape left from telling Stephan that he did a bad thing, Arthur swooped in.

"Hey."

"..Woah you're actually talking to me."

"..Huh?"

"It was a joke, 'couse I'm always the one talking to you."

"Ooh."Arthur nodded. "Yeah that makes sense."

"I don't think it does."

"Oh." Arthur was confused.

"But hey, what can you do." He grinned. "Anyways, what's up?"

"Oh, I just got a weird thought from watching you break the table."

"Well get to thinking, because I bet you I'll break way more."

"Ah." Arthur looked at the magically fixed table.

"So, what did you think?"

"Well, if you were a rule breaker, where would you got at night if not the common room?"

"What do you mean if?" He leaned against the sofa. "But yeah, rule breaking, table breaking, I don't actually support that. I'm just trying to hide the fact it was an accident."

"But the questions.." Arthur moved his hands as if to say 'please answer.' As much as he enjoyed Stephan's confusing personality, he didn't want to waste his time listening to him talk about tables.

"Yeah, I just had to say that." Stephan patted Arthur's shoulder. There was a moment of silence where he realized what he did, but neither of them really commented on it any more than that. "I would probably go to like a secret room or something."

"A secret room? Where would you even find one?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Maybe I would ask someone for their whereabouts and hope for the best."

 _"_ _The Key man, the master of whereabouts"_ Echoed in Arthur's head. "Yeah, you do that." He nodded. "Thanks." Arthur said and walked back to his sofa.

"You be welcome." Stephan gave him thumbs up, but failed. No-one knows how.

Arthur sat down, he wasn't allowed out of the Common room anymore, and he would have both detention and school the next day. He would have time to check the painting, and at night sneak around for Lukas' stuff.

He sighed a bit, he couldn't believe how he wasted his weekend.

At least he had a goal, he was going to get Lukas to actually talk to him.

If only he knew why.

 **I don't know if anyone is reading this anymore, pff.  
I am still gonna write it anyways.**

I'll post 2 new chapters today.

Arthur woke up.

It felt _incredible_.

His head didn't throb with pain, and no gibberish shouting anywhere, not even a whisper. He was laying on a comfy bed in silence, refreshed and free. He had never felt as good waking up with a headache.

He got up to sit, he was alone in the room. His non-electric watch on the table said 1 pm. Arthur wasn't even surprised. Honestly he could throw himself on the bed and sleep more, but as much as it tempted him he should probably get his attachment to reality back in check.

Arthur had no-idea what his classmates knew about the whole situation, if Andrew actually told anyone, or even what he got for homework.

Above all that was also his findings with the spell, even though he had somewhat forgotten them during the intense pain, he still didn't know why Vlad was glowing grey and black, or why he and Malfoy seemed to be connected.

Not to mention Lukas.

Arthur had lost all ability to place Lukas anymore, but he was sure he wasn't just some cold distant person. The concern Lukas showed to him was real, the boy really was troubled for him.

It was decided then, he was going to figure out what was up with Lukas.

He dressed up, went down to the common room, and noticed that a few of his classmates were spending the Sunday there. They all turned their heads at his for a moment, but quickly turned away, they seemed to realize how rude it was.

Arthur begun walking through the room, he should be able to attend lunch at least, no-reason to get bothered by his classmate, though he was going to anyways.

Then he was stopped by Stephan, his classmate. "Hey- Arthur, you okay?"

"Huh?" He turned to look at the Sofa next to him, Stephan sat on it with his friends.

"You okay? We heard you had a.. Meltdown or something"

"Oh." Arthur looked away for a bit, trying to place his thoughts. "That."

"I heard you screamed-" One of the boys said, but was shushed by Stephan. It seemed that he had achieved the alpha status.

"I guess I did." Arthur shrugged. "I was just really tired."

"You seemed pretty tired on Friday, have you not been sleeping properly?" One of the two girls in the group spoke.

"I did?" Arthur was actually surprised they had even noticed his existence. "I didn't even notice."

"Well you're okay now, right?"

"Yeah, I am feeling a lot better." Arthur replied.

"I hope so." Stephan smiled to Arthur. "Where am I going to get my homework answers from if you're sick." He laughed, it was quite uplifting.

"Speaking of homework, I'd like to know what we got."

"Oh-"

After fishing around the group Arthur got a small note with hastily written list of the homework and pages, it was surprisingly efficient.

With the note safely in his pocket, he made his way to the great hall. There was still food being served, thank lord.

He sat down, and ate. He only then realized how hungry he truly was, he hadn't eaten anything on Saturday. He hadn't ever eaten that much for lunch, expect maybe Christmas at grandma's.

Arthur didn't even notice who really were there with him, and he didn't really care. Food was delicious, he was hungry, it was good enough.

Surprisingly, his Father's owl flew in. It was a noble looking brown owl, not too old or too young. It had a small white face, and the only thing that would make it a non-perfect owl was it's wooden leg. It was perfect in his Dad's opinion though, and Arthur couldn't help but to agree.

His Father did promise that he would send them letters during the year, so it didn't even come to Arthur's mind that there could be anything bad there.

Until he actually read the letter the owl brought.

 _"_ _Arthur, this is your Father writing._

 _I heard you're sick, and hope that someone clarifies HOW, a cold? A flu? Seriously._

 _I thought I told you all to be more specific with your statements, I know writing is hard but for god's sake. I'm writing this letter to three people after all! Of course personalized to all of you, why send three if not. Also no, don't send me a "That seems like a hazzle you should focus on one" no, that isn't going to happen._

 _Anyways, please tell me what Owen means by "sick," I do not enjoy being worried like this without even knowing the details._

 _Also you will be coming home for Christmas, right?_

\- Dad"

Arthur stared at the paper. His brother's really went and told dad.

That's not okay.

His father would accept a "Oh a cold, okay." but that didn't change the fact the whole situation was spiralling out of control. At this rate everyone would know Arthur had a weird meltdown, if they didn't already.

Also apparently Andrew told Owen, why worry him too? Arthur knew that he had acted in a very worrying way, but this was just embarrassing.

He decided to fold the letter and placed it in his pocket, two papers in his pocket was a new record.

After finishing his breakfast he left the great hall.

He decided to go find Owen and Andrew, hopefully he could explain that there was no reason to worry.

He began walking around, he had never actually tried to find his brother before. Had he even seen Owen all year? Maybe 7th years were just very busy.

Arthur climbed up a few stairs, and realized he didn't even know where he was. It was some small hallway with a lot of paintings; they seemed to be minding their own business.

Arthur walked forwards and around a corner, only to find the corner just leading to a big painting the size of the wall. Of course he would find a dead end.

A very small painting next to him abruptly whispered "What are you doing?"

Arthur turned to look at her "Getting lost, apparently."

"Yeah, clearly." She mumbled.

"What's up with the big painting?"

The girl in the painting rolled her eyes. "It's pretty complicated."

"..Oh." He looked at it for a moment. "Does it usually have someone?"

"The Key man, the master of whereabouts" She explained.

"Who?"

"You really don't know?"

"Nope."

"Yeah, of course. You non-paintings are always so oblivious to us. How about for once you do your own freaking research." The girl angrily slammed the table of her painting and ran off.

Arthur just kind of watched her anger escalate. After another glance at the painting, he decided to leave the weird hallway.

The large painting of the hallway stayed in his mind even after leaving, though. The dead end's painting was made to look almost like a mirror of the preceding walkway. But instead of a hall of paintings, each square was a door. And one extremely large one in the far back.

What a weird thing.

After looking for a bit more, Arthur got rather frustrated and gave up.

He returned to the dungeons to properly do some homework. As he walked down from his bedside to the main area, he noticed that a lot of people had shown up, most being his classmates.

Arthur found himself being bombarded with questions, and decided that it was not the ideal place to study.

He shook them off and decided to head to the library, as it would be the best choice. Arthur sure was doing a lot of walking that day. He had an urge to complain about it, but no-one to complain to. This annoyed him further.

On top of that Arthur actually found himself rather surprised of how little he used the library. It always felt like he would be the type to enjoy a calming evening in the library reading.

He got up to the first floor, only to notice his brother right at the stairs to the dungeon. Arthur felt succesful.

"Oh- Hey." Andrew spoke to him, it was actually surprising he still would talk to him.

"Hi." Arthur answered, it was quick and simple.

"You feeling any better?"

"Yes. The nap was very helpful."

"That's nice." Andrew seemed genuinely surprised. "I talked to Pomfrey by the way."

"Oh."

"I didn't mention you." He glanced away as he said it.

It was Arthur's turn to be surprised; there was no good reason to not tell about it to Pomfrey. "Why did you go there then?"

"I go my hand checked."

"Ah."

"She said it was a bit stiff, too much writing apparently."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah."

Neither of them were looking at each other anymore, it was just a hideously awkward silence.

"Do you know where Owen usually is?"

Andrew looked at him for a moment, somewhat grateful the silence was cut by Arthur. "I usually find him in the Owlery."

"The Owlery?"

"West tower."

"Why would he be there?"

"I don't know, apparently it relaxes him."

Arthur kept insisting with a weird look, but Andrew just shrugged.

Afterwards they departed, Arthur returned to his journey towards the library.

It was one of the rare places he properly knew the location of. Within a few minutes he arrived to the paper smelling, quiet area.

He had been there only twice, firstly by Professor Snape's assignment made for making sure they knew how to research, and a second one "the good of transfiguration" assigned by McGonagall. Arthur walked straight to the back, where he had sat before. There was a very nice quiet table which almost never had anyone else even close by.

Surprisingly enough, Lukas was there. He was reading his small blue book with golden decorations.

"Oh-" Arthur let out the moment he realized this. "I didn't expect you to be here."

"Uh-huh."

"What are you up to?"

"Reading."

"What are you reading about?"

"Boats."

Arthur tilted his head a bit, tapping his fingers against his books. "You must really like boats if you've been reading about them all year."

"Ecstatic." He closed his book, as a signal that he was going to read somewhere Arthur-less.

"You certainly don't seem to be that interested in chitchat."

Lukas held the book against his chest. his replies were as sharp as usual: "Not at all."

"Me neither." Arthur shrugged, much like Andrew. "But hey, we can talk about a lot of other things, huh?"

"That's not a good thing."

"And why is that?"

".. You don't know me, and I don't know you." He turned his head towards Arthur, and their eyes met. "And I wish to keep it that way."

"But why?"

"It is none of your business." He walked past Arthur.

Arthur was seeing a pattern, and did not want accept it repeating. He grabbed Lukas' hand, but he shook his off instantly. His eyes looked fierce when they met his for a split second, and somewhat troubled. It clearly didn't hurt him like it did Arthur, but it didn't seem like something he appreciated.

Worse of all was that such a sudden movement had forced Lukas' fingers to slip on his book, and one of the golden decorations had moved drastically up.

The Blue of the book had quickly transformed into a black, and the golden decorations to silver.

Lukas looked horrified, his eyes wider than they had been before that. He quickly forced the golden piece back to where it belonged, but Arthur had already had the chance to read the title.

"Research diaries of Sable Edge, volume 2."

"No way."

"What?" Lukas' voice was sharp, stressed and far from his usual elegant detachment.

"Sable Edge, the dark arts researcher." Arthur looked like he had been knocked on the head with a ham. "You have one of her research diaries?!"

"Quiet." Lukas hushed anxiously, they were in a library after all.

"I thought they were all burnt." Arthur whispered. "How do you have one?"

"It's none of your business."

"But-"

"If you tell anyone, I will tell everyone you used Ostendente."

Arthur stared Lukas speechlessly. He knew the spell, he had Edge's diary, he was like him. "I have Guttuso's diary-"

Lukas snapped "Everyone already talks rumours about you, they'll believe me above you. If you don't want the truth out you'll stop talking to me."

Arthur shut his mouth.

Lukas walked off, leaving him in the library. The quiet of pages being turned, and slight coughs and whispers made him feel un-easier than he hoped.

He decided focus on homework, yeah. Just homework , he can think about this later.  
It wasn't exactly a success, but he did get his homework done. The thoughts of the whole weekend rushed in his mind, he had really gotten into a bad situation.

The sun had set when Arthur finally packed his books into a pile and walked out of the library. He might as well check the Owlery.

With a little help from McGonagall, he found the West tower and the entrance to the Owlery.

There Owen was, sitting in a owl poop lacking spot watching some of the owls.

"Hey." Arthur greeted him, raising his hand. It felt pretty chilly there without any windows.

"Arthur!" Owen said in disbelief, and got right on up. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, I guess." He shrugged. "I got a letter from dad."

"Oh." Owen rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I panicked."

"Did Andrew tell you?"

"Yeah." Owen bit his lip. "I got worried, but you seem okay now."

"I was just tired, okay?"

"If you say so."

"And you'll tell dad?"

"…If you want me to."

"Yeah, I would appreciate it."

"Okay then." He gave him an un-sure nod, and glance back at the owls.

"Why are you watching Owls anyways?"

"It's calming."

"Yeah, poop totally calms people."

"Maybe you'll get it at a later date." He said, still focusing on the winged creatures.

"Andrew clearly doesn't."

"He does, he just won't admit it." Owen smirked a bit.

"Well that's nice."

There was a bit of silence. Owen and Arthur had always had a very bare bones sibling relationship, Owen made sure all subjects would be covered and Arthur didn't find even a single reason to sass him. Arthur enjoyed the change of pace compared to his other brothers, especially Connor.

"Have you made any friends?" Owen looked at Arthur now, not as intently as the owls but Arthur appreciated it.

"Uuh, it's a work in progress. I guess"

"No rush, not everyone makes friends just like that."

"..Do you have any friends?"

Owen let out a very confusing laugh. "Yeah, I think so."

"..Other than owls."

"Other than Owls, yes."

Arthur couldn't help but to return a slight smile, it wasn't anything bit- but Owen seemed to like it."Well, okay then. I'll trust you."

"Dorothy seems to be wanting a letter from you, by the way."

"Oh yeah, I'll probably have one next morning."

"Okay."

The chatter continued a few moments more, but Arthur left quite soon after.

Arthur felt confused, when walking back to the dungeon, especially about Lukas. He knew about Dark arts, and practised them. It was obvious from the hairclip. Why would he not want to share such a hobby with others? Was Arthur weird for wanting that?

He did suppose that maybe others just aren't as easy to trust as you.

It still didn't answer Arthur what was Lukas' goal, or what the hair clip did. Did even Arthur have a goal? Why did he care Lukas knows Sable Edge, anyways?

He was in a very messy situation and had no idea how to properly deal with it.

Arthur begun thinking about Lukas' threat, he wanted to tell everyone about the spell he used. Which in fact was illegal and a ton of proof against him.

Arthur knew about Lukas' hairclip though, which could also be looked into. If Arthur found it as a dark charm, he would have the same level of blackmail against him.

He had a plan.

He was going to get that hairclip.

He walked up to the common room, quickly gave the password of "Superior blood" and walked in.

Luckily his sleeping schedule was so messed up that he could stay up long enough to properly go after Lukas.

He sat on the sofa, and begun preparing. It seemed that his classmates had calmed down with the questions, probably because Stephan was now doing something weird on a table.

From what Arthur could gather, Lukas appeared into the Common room around 1-4 am, always with his book and wand. If he spent most of his time in the library, he had to leave it around the time they had to go to bed or he would be caught. So where did he go to after that, other than the bathroom which wasn't a likely option anymore.

Where would he go to at night if not the common room? Arthur had no-idea really. He wasn't much of a rule breaker, maybe he had to ask someone.

He looked around; did he know any rule breakers?

At that moment Stephan broke the table with his weight, and Arthur found his rule breaker.

Once Professor Snape left from telling Stephan that he did a bad thing, Arthur swooped in.

"Hey."

"..Woah you're actually talking to me."

"..Huh?"

"It was a joke, 'couse I'm always the one talking to you."

"Ooh."Arthur nodded. "Yeah that makes sense."

"I don't think it does."

"Oh." Arthur was confused.

"But hey, what can you do." He grinned. "Anyways, what's up?"

"Oh, I just got a weird thought from watching you break the table."

"Well get to thinking, because I bet you I'll break way more."

"Ah." Arthur looked at the magically fixed table.

"So, what did you think?"

"Well, if you were a rule breaker, where would you got at night if not the common room?"

"What do you mean if?" He leaned against the sofa. "But yeah, rule breaking, table breaking, I don't actually support that. I'm just trying to hide the fact it was an accident."

"But the questions.." Arthur moved his hands as if to say 'please answer.' As much as he enjoyed Stephan's confusing personality, he didn't want to waste his time listening to him talk about tables.

"Yeah, I just had to say that." Stephan patted Arthur's shoulder. There was a moment of silence where he realized what he did, but neither of them really commented on it any more than that. "I would probably go to like a secret room or something."

"A secret room? Where would you even find one?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Maybe I would ask someone for their whereabouts and hope for the best."

 _"_ _The Key man, the master of whereabouts"_ Echoed in Arthur's head. "Yeah, you do that." He nodded. "Thanks." Arthur said and walked back to his sofa.

"You be welcome." Stephan gave him thumbs up, but failed. No-one knows how.

Arthur sat down, he wasn't allowed out of the Common room anymore, and he would have both detention and school the next day. He would have time to check the painting, and at night sneak around for Lukas' stuff.

He sighed a bit, he couldn't believe how he wasted his weekend.

At least he had a goal, he was going to get Lukas to actually talk to him.

If only he knew why.


	6. Clip and click

**Hope you are enjoying this!**

* * *

Arthur quickly found out that Lukas was not pleased with their chitchat yesterday. He stood closer to their classmates than ever before as if to shield himself, and left his blue book to who knows where.

Lukas and he had locked eyes a few times, each time both of them looking away instantly. It felt offensive, and difficult. Arthur found himself feeling quilt, not much but enough to be bothered by it. He hadn't made anyone this angry before, at least outside of his family members.

In class Lukas didn't answer even once, it wasn't a rare occurrence, but it felt worse than usual.

They had potions that day before lunch, and once the class ended Arthur was just about to leave the classroom, but was stopped quickly.

"Mr. Kirkland, I need to talk to you." Professor Snape spoke.

Arthur turned to look at him- admittedly he was a bit nervous. "What is it, Professor?"

"I was told about your weekend 'meltdown,' as your classmates call it."

"Oh."

"I hope the next time something like that happens, I will be told directly by you and not by overhearing rumours from your classmates." He explained in a disapproving tone.

"I didn't realize I needed to tell anyone-"

"If you're in a bad situation health-wise it is advised to visit the hospital wing."

"I was just tired, I thought I made that clear." Arthur sighed, somewhat annoyed by the whole ordeal.

Snape gazed down on him, not looking satisfied in the slightest. "And this wasn't another spell messing with you?"

"Of course not, Professor." Arthur found white lies much easier than full on lies.

"Have you visited the hospital wing after the incident?"

Arthur shook his head. "I have not."

"Please go there after your classes today, mr. Kirkland."

Arthur looked somewhat defeated. "Fine, Professor."

"Bring a signed document as proof to your detention." Snape waved his hand as if to say 'shoo.'

"Alright, Professor." Arthur nodded and left the classroom.

He walked the stairs to the floor of the great hall, and found himself late enough to see people leaving it already.

With a groan he proceeds, and before he even reaches the entrance- a familiar face marches out.

It was Vlad, his face was intense, but in a remarkably thrilled way. He looked like he would have gotten an excellent grade in blowing up people or something similar. It sent chills down Arthur's spine.

To top it off, Vlad walk right into Arthur. It could have been a purposeful bump, but Vlad did seem surprised after.

"Sorry-" He looked actually regretful for a moment, but the moment Vlad recognised Arthur his face shifted to an arrogant distaste. "Watch where you're going."

"You were the one who walked right into me!" Arthur complained, he was rightfully obligated to it for once.

"Sure." Vlad rolled his eyes, and walked off.

Arthur hadn't really focused on Vlad's eyes before - he had noted them as strange but nothing more than that. No-one seemed to ever mention them, so maybe it was just a genetic condition. Still, Arthur had never seen someone with light red eyes.

There was something only Arthur knew about Vlad, which could be the culprit: The grey and black corrupt magic.

Certainly only someone corrupt could wear a smirk like that.

He carried on to the great hall, and to his surprise the weirdness wasn't over. When he sat down, his classmates at the Slytherin table were spreading rumours once again, but this time they weren't about him.

"Hey Arthur." A boy greeted him, Arthur was sure he had known the kid's name at some point but it was now completely lost.

"Oh, Good day."

"Did you hear about Malfoy?"

"What about him?"

"They think he might be a Squib."

"What?" That was new. "Why?"

"They say he apparently failed completely to do any magic in the classes today."

"But he has before?"

"Yeah, but we're moving to harder things now, maybe he can only do the basics?"

"But that's not what Squib means." Arthur wasn't even sure what to think. Malfoy failing in class? It was a bit humours to think about, but he wasn't the type to want something as bad as to be a magical failure to anyone. "Squib is completely absent of magic."

"Then maybe he just sucks."

"That would make more sense." Arthur hadn't seen Malfoy almost at all after the Train incident, he would pass him now and then in the common room but never more than a distasteful stare was shared, it could be that he just was bad at magic.

There was another possibility though, and he had to admit it would make a lot of sense.

Arthur had seen a spell being active between Vlad and Malfoy, a dark spell with a strong red in Draco's wand hand.

If those things weren't related, Arthur didn't know what would.

Vlad seemed awfully proud of the effects at least, which was actually quite horrid. To think someone like that called Slytherin the house of evil.

"Where did you hear about this?" Arthur asked, biting into his food.

"Mike has friends in Malfoy's class." Stephan spoke up. So the boy's name was Mike, how could he forget, it was such a deeply memorable name. Actually now that he thought about it, all of his classmates had very memorable names. He was being sarcastic of course- it was silly to think "Mike" was anything memorable.

"Alright." Arthur nodded.

After eating a bit, he got up to enjoy the lunchbreak.

He had planned to visit the painting at this point, hopefully the Key man was around.

Arthur had to walk around hoping to walk the right way, he knew in a very un-certain way where the hallway was.

After some wondering around, he finally found the strange hallway. He walked right into it, and found that no painting was hanging around. "Hello?" He asked, to see if he could get any of their attention. He wasn't sure if that actually worked with paintings, but it was worth a shot.

Either a painting heard his voice or with dumb luck, one of the paintings came over.

It was a lonely looking bride, with a hat that looked like it ate the bachelor. "Goodness, hi there!" She greeted with a sweet voice, it was filled with warmth. Arthur thought she seemed nice.

"Hello." Arthur greeted her personally, turning directly at her.

"My, I rarely get any visitors." She smiled a bit. "There is that one other blond kid, but he isn't much of a talker, heh."

"Lukas?"

"How did you know?" She looked very surprised. "Are you friends?"

"Well," Arthur shook his head, "No."

"What a shame, he is a very nice gentleman." She smiled. "Sadly also seems to be quite lonely."

"How come?"

"Only lonely people talk to us." She smiled with slight sorrow. "You must be lonely too, right?"

Arthur adjusted his robe a bit: "Maybe a little?"

"How saddening." She sighed, even it sounded kind. "I hope you two can find friends."

"I was actually thinking of be-friending him." Arthur said, it was a somewhat un-sure statement, much to his own surprise.

"Really? Goodness! I would love to help." She smiled brightly.

"Oh?" Arthur got a bit excited. "Can you tell me about the key man?"

"..The Key man?" She titled her head. "Oh, I suppose he is the only reason anyone would come to this hallway." She placed her hand softly on her own mouth, it was strangely elegant. "How saddening."

"I'm sorry?" Arthur felt quilty again. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, no, I'll tell you if that means I can do something nice to you non-paintings." She smiled, it was a bit sad but a respectable effort none-the-less. "The Key man as a human had a keen interest in doors, and what lays behind them" She explained simply. "He created a key that could open all doors."

"That's possible?"

"I never said if the story is true or not." She smiled warmly. "You'll have to ask him."

"Alright then." Arthur was a little disappointed, but he didn't let it show.

"The more doors he opened, the more he wanted. He kept going, and going, until one day he had to open more things than doors. Things that would stand in his way." The painting explained with an almost blissful tone. "Until one day he had to use the key to lock."

"..And?"

"They say he is still trapped, and some say he is still out there opening doors. It doesn't matter to me though, I prefer the Key man we have. The master of Whereabouts." she gestured towards the painting, with a love-struck gaze. "We're his followers here, at his small hallway of a home."

"That story doesn't make much sense."

"I only know so much, he is a cryptic man." She smiled.

"I can see that." He tried not to look lost. "Do you know where he could be?"

"I'll go get him." She nodded and walked through a small door behind her.

"WHAT?!" A familiar angry lady screeched behind Arthur. It was the angry painting from earlier. "So I told you to get out of here and you freaking convince my best friend to give you what you want!"

"Pretty much." Arthur gave her a shrug in response.

"That is absolutely disgusting! You are a horrible person!" She screamed.

"Mirabella, please calm down." A very calm and kind male voice spoke. The woman stopped talking immediately.

"Hmph." She mumbled and walked to who knows where.

"You must be the one who wanted to see me." The male stared upon Arthur from behind his boarders.

"Oh- Right, yes." Arthur turned his head to face the Key man.

His smile was calm and collected, his eyes were half open and bright yellow and gold. It immediately striked Arthur as imposing, yet somehow charming. "What is your name?"

"I'm Arthur." He answered with no-hesitation.

"I am the Key man, the master of whereabouts." He smiled.

"What does that mean, exactly?" Arthur was happy to finally get some answers.

"I know what lies behind all doors, and other types of entrances." He explained.

"I see." Arthur nodded. "Can you tell me where Lukas is?"

"Lukas?" He titled his head, in a more curious than surprised manner. "Why do you wish to find him?"

"..I just do? I guess." Did he even know why? Supposedly he did just kind of want to make friends, but other than that he wasn't sure.

"My, my, that is intriguing." He moved a strand of his dark hair behind his ear. "I don't think he wants me to tell you where he spends his time. I would love to tell you, but I will have to _cooperate_ with Lukas for now."

"Oh." So Lukas knew of the Key man? "Is there anything I could do to make you tell me?"

"Heh, are you planning to surprise him at night or something? Why would you need this information?" He seemed humoured.

"Well, no." He shook his head. "I just got curious of where he spends his nights?" Arthur's lies were clear, but the Key man didn't look bothered by them.

"Many a curious of students who don't follow along the crowd." He mused "I am awfully sorry for not being able to tell you, though."

"Of course not." Arthur felt like someone was dangling Galleons in front of him.

"I can tell you which chamber he sleeps in though.

"Oh-" Arthur faced the man- painting properly again.

"It's the fourth chamber, the one right next to yours." He hummed quietly to himself, only glancing once at Arthur during his sentence.

"That'll come in handy, thank you." Arthur nodded, feeling joyous for some succeed.

"No problem." He tilted his head towards him. "At least for me," he chuckled a bit, "I am only a painting after all."

"Heh, yeah, nice.. paint work, by the way."

"Life like, isn't it? My painter was a horrid person, but at least he knew how to wave a stick."

"Uh-huh." Arthur squinted his eyes in confusion, and decided it was time to leave. "Thanks, again."

"Good luck!" He waved him goodbye with a grin on his face.

Arthur was not entirely sure what to think about the whole situation, he just walked out of the hallway with his new found information. He would have defence against dark arts next, so there was no reason to think about the situation any further.

The rest of the day went by focusing on school work, and only once he was getting ready to go to detention Arthur realized how soon he would have to break more rules. He was actually planning to steal another student's possession at night.

He walked over to Professor Snape's office, he would have to spend two hours there. Arthur arrived there after dinner, meaning he would get out at ten in the evening. Then he would have to somehow see when Lukas returned from his night-time-shenanigans.

Arthur knocked on Professor Snape's door, and the darkly clothed man opened it, with his usual disapproving gaze. "At least you're on time."

"Heh, yeah." Arthur walked in and sat on the free chair. "I really don't wish to make this more painful than it has to be."

"Not the worst perspective on the subject." Snape sat down as well, after closing the door. "The best being not having to attend detention."

"I slipped up, I am truly sorry."

"I hope you never thought that you could get away with it."

"..Yeah."

Snape placed a few candelabras on the table. "McGonagall suggested I would have you cleaning these, as they have become dusty during the summer."

"Oh- Alright."

"Without magic."

"Oh."

Arthur was given a small towel and a place to clean at the side, so he wouldn't accidently clean Snape's paperwork.

"Did you visit the hospital wing?" Snape glanced at Arthur from his table.

"Oh- I forgot-"

Snape stared at him, clearly not amused. "5 points from Slytherin."

"I'm sorry-"

"Go there tomorrow the _moment_ you can."

"I'll do that.." Arthur breathed sharply. "I'm sorry, Professor."

For a small while he scrubbed in silence. Cleaning without magic felt a bit pointless, but he had done it multiple times before as his father was horrible at cleaning spells and Owen wasn't home every day. It was also a good way to distract him from the mess he had let his situation become.

"You scored yourself detention much sooner than any of your brothers have." Snape raised his voice a bit. "I do hope that isn't a sign of your future."

"Hah, yeah, I suppose that would be pretty bad."

"Hah, indeed." His voice was damp and lifeless, it was possibly the most terrifying "Hah" Arthur had heard.

"Breaking rules is much more of a Gryffindor-like thing, it would be a shame if you got sorted in the wrong house."

"That's uh, an interesting though, Professor." Arthur looked at the towel in his hand for a moment. "I don't feel like a Gryffindor though."

"I hope you won't act like one too." Snape's word stung a bit.

Arthur nodded very apprehensively "I hope so too."

The rest of the two hours were very quiet, and Arthur was able to clean quite a lot of Candelabras.

Then Snape told him to leave, and not to come back to detention. Arthur left the office with soapy hands and a dent in his pride.

He strolled over to the common room and sat down on the sofa he had claimed as his domain. He had to act natural, even with the big plans he had for that night.

It had become normal for him to stay in the common room late into the night, but it also seemed to make others worried. He decided to go to bed at a normal time for all students.

Which was around 10:30 for Stephan, and Stephan was the alpha of their class.

Arthur decided to use the 30 minutes to do his homework, it was rather easy.

Once he finished, and Stephan's gang went to the sleeping area, Arthur packed up and got up.

He followed them in the least suspicious way as possible.

He slept in the third chamber, with him were a few others, he didn't know their names but they seemed friendly with each other. One of them might have been called Jacob or something, he wasn't sure.

Stephan was in the 5th Chamber, so Arthur was alone when he entered his bedside.

He sat on his bed, and changed into sleepwear. The few other boys were chatting on their beds, but they ignored Arthur as always.

They had tried to be-friend him at one point, but it became quickly clear that it wasn't meant to be.

Arthur laid down, and grapped one of his non-illegal books. He was not going to allow himself to fall asleep, as he knew he wouldn't get up before morning.

He had learnt Lumos recently, which helped quite a lot.

The book he had was one of the books his dad had gotten him as a birthday present. Arthur's dad had always been the type to hold education as a necessity, and if Arthur would have suggested any other place than Hogwarts as a school, he would have flipped. It wasn't that he thought that they needed high education to be worth loving, more so as wanting the best for his sons.

Andrew had once mentioned that maybe mom left because they only had sons, but Arthur had to strongly disagree. Mom had never seemed like the type that would do that.

The book itself was about the history of Wizarding education, it was written by his old friend from Hogwarts, so it was a bit special.

He read it for a long time, but one of his roommates whispered to him, asking Arthur to stop using Lumos. He had to oblige, which forced him to lay on the bed doing bugger all.

It was strange how only a day ago he was so happy he had gotten his ability to sleep back, but now it was only troubling him.

The bed felt so incredibly comfortable, even better than before. If someone told him that they had magically made his bed softer, he wouldn't be surprised- other than about the fact that someone actually would do that.

He checked his watch, it was 12:40, Lukas could appear either very soon or in a few hours.

Arthur's roommates were all quiet, one of them snored slightly- Not bad enough to bother him though.

The room was awfully dark, the only light source were the Lakeview windows, which did not help that much.

Arthur decided that he might as well use them to their full potential, he got up and carried his book to the window where he could at least read on some level.

He had changed the book from history of education to his book of dark arts: Diary of Colby Guttuso, the assistant of Sable Edge.

Arthur had found the book from his Grand-grandfather's attic. When they visited to collect his belongings, he had found a hidden cardboard box under a plank. Inside: was this book.

His Grand-grandfather was found to have relations with the dark lord, especially a good friendship with one of his little helpers.

Arthur didn't see the book as a disgrace, but as un-tapped potential. To this day none of his family knew he was the owner of this book.

He read about the spells, most of the pages where rather sad with long descriptions of Guttuso's experiences with Edge. How he felt guilty for her disappearance, and felt like writing their research down was the only way he could save their work, and her legacy.

Because of this book, he thought all of Edge's work was confiscated or destroyed. It was incredible to think that his classmate held possibly the last book from Edge.

Arthur checked his clock, it had become 04:50 am. He felt extremely tired once again, but he had a duty to fulfil.

He placed his book in it's usual spot, and placed his wand in his pocket. He didn't feel like he would need it, but Arthur wanted to be sure.

He sneaked to the door, and opened it as quietly as possible.

The hallway was dark and empty, it had no windows- which made it very hard to see where you were walking.

Arthur stuck close to the wall. The 4th chamber was very close, so it wasn't like he needed to search for a long time.

Each of his bare feet made a small sound, it wasn't something anyone would wake up to but it felt so much louder.

He found the large door he was supposed to enter into. Arthur placed his ear on the door to hear if anyone was awake in the room, he started feeling very nervous.

He had only waited half an hour to try it, no-one fell asleep that quickly. He could be just walking right into Lukas laying half-asleep on the bed, Arthur would be found out immediately.

Arthur decided to return back to his room, but as he turned he heard footsteps.

In panic he quietly and quickly found himself in Lukas' room. He couldn't believe that was his first choice, but he was somewhat glad it was. All of the people in the room were clearly asleep, as otherwise they would have noticed him. To add to his victory, the steps behind the door went pass the room, which meant that Arthur had miraculously failed his way to success.

Now he had to not fail, as in this situation that would be a catastrophe. He sneaked a bit, it seemed that Lukas slept at the far left of the room. At least that was the only blond in the room.

Each step he took closer to Lukas felt like stepping on a mine, loud and painful. There was something small and fluffy on the floor as well, and Arthur feared it waking up.

He was almost at Lukas' bedside, which was much cleaner than his. Everything was in order, books placed neatly on his travel trunk, and on top of them there was a hairclip.

Arthur was somewhat relieved he wouldn't have to sneak all the way to the other wall of the room.

He heard a sneeze, it was like someone had petrified him. He slowly turned around, only to see two eyes gaze upon him.

Arthur turned instantly towards them.

The eyes moved a bit upwards, and then jumped on the ground.

It was a cat.

Arthur looked to his legs, where the other fluffy thing was, and where the eyes were heading.

It took about a minute for Arthur to realize that he has been staring at two cats laying next to each other and wasting time. He had to get a grip, it was a in-and-out-mission, not a in-and-stare-at-cats-mission.

He inched his way to the travel trunk, and reached his hand for the hairclip.

He could feel his fingers touch it, but in the same second it was like touching a burning kettle. He let out a gasp, and slapped his mouth, god that would have been stupid.

Lukas must have protected the hairclip somehow, it had to be important if it was so protected.

Arthur pulled his wand from his pocket, he was somewhat glad it was useful after all. He poked the hairclip a bit, it seemed to only react to human skin- making it a very simple and non-illegal spell, how fun.

He pulled his sleepwear's sleeves a bit further and grapped the hairclip with the fabric between his fingers and the hairclip. It wasn't the best hold he could have gotten from it, but it had to work until he got out of there.

The out part of the mission was far easier, he got out of there quicker and in, and was soon in the hallway sweaty from how nervous he had been. He leant against the wall to catch his beating heart, "God that was nerve wrecking" he thought.

Then he heard footsteps, but it was too late to do anything about it.

"Arthur?" He heard a whisper in the dark.

"Huh-" Arthur almost flipped from how jumpy he was.

"You going to the bathroom too?" It was Stephan, seemingly drying his hands on his T-shirt that seemed to have been nommed on.

"Oh- Yes." Arthur snapped his fingers "That is exactly what I am doing."

"..Wait, you sleep in the fourth chamber? I could have sworn I saw you going to the third earlier."

"Oh? well- Maybe I sleep in the fourth. No issue in that." He stumbled on his words, and badly.

"Sleep where ever you want, dude." Stephan patted him on the shoulder and walked off into the darkness.

Arthur sighed the moment Stephan left the area he could possibly be heard from. The whole chat was luckily made in whispers, and Arthur was still on the clear from being the most suspicious person in Hogwarts.

He arrived to his bedside soon, he placed the hairclip under his book pile and jumped on his bed. Then he started to feel very un-comfortable.

There was adrenaline from the whole mission still running, but a strange discomfort was replacing it quickly.

He had just stolen from another student. He had stolen something that they clearly didn't want people to touch. Arthur had stolen an important item from Lukas, but why?

Why did he do that?

He quickly grasped that he had truly messed up. If he really wanted to be Lukas' friend why was he stealing his stuff? Yes he needed it to not be arrested for using Dark arts, but that was still a horrible thing to do.

And what would he do now? Actually blackmail Lukas into talking to him? He was forcing his ..

His..

His friendship? Onto Lukas.

No, that wasn't it.

Arthur placed his hand on his head, and let out a deep desperate sigh. He had dun goof'd

* * *

 **There you go, two new chapters. More will come sooner or later!  
Also if you enjoyed it a review would be appreciated, it really adds motivation.**


	7. That makes Turquoise

**I hope you're ready for more 11 year olds suffering.**

* * *

Arthur felt icky.

It was a rainy Tuesday, the mood was collectively a bit calmer than before, and Lukas came in class late and without his book.

Arthur knew why- Well, more like had a hunch to why Lukas was late. It didn't help his mood, he was feeling down, and lost, and un-certain of what he can- or even should do about this.

Classes were bothersome, the food wasn't that good, and Arthur couldn't properly focus on any of it. When the classes of the day were over, it was like it hadn't even started.

Arthur had been in thought all day, trying to figure himself out.

All of those questions he had been pushing aside all month were finally flooding to the front of his mind. Things like "Why am I even doing all this?" and "Why do I want Lukas to talk to me?"

He did quickly realize he wasn't sure where he ever could find answers to any of his questions, but no-shame in trying.

He was walking to the Hospital wing, he didn't want to have Professor Snape angry on top of all of his other issues.

He knocked on the door, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to act. Knocking was something he had been taught as a universally polite thing, so that's what he tried.

Madam Pomfrey opened the door. She looked somewhat bothered, but not exactly angry. "Hm?"

"Professor Snape asked me to come get checked." Arthur explained, he only then realized the nervous sting in his chest. What if Pomfrey could find out he used dark arts?

"Hm.. Yes I think he did mention that to me in the staff meeting." Pomfrey moved from in front of the door. "Please do come in."

Arthur did as asked. The Hospital wing seemed quite empty, only one other student seemed to be there. They were knocked out though.

He wasn't given much time to wonder about it, since Pomfrey escorted him to one of the beds and told him to sit down.

Arthur sat down, and Pomfrey grabbed a chair and sat next to him. She seemed somewhat serious, but also kind. It was a strange sight.

"So, what happened?"

Arthur tensed a little. "Oh, well, I was just very tired."

"I doubt someone like Snape would send anyone here just because they were tired." She shook her head a bit. "Please go into more detail."

"Well, I was having a headache, and everything felt heavy." He explained as well as he could, without giving away anything too big. "Then I got up to go to bed, and then Andrew grapped my arm, and it hurt."

"He touched you, and it hurt?"

"Yes."

"Did that happen with anyone other than him?"

"No, everyone else was totally fine." Arthur explained, he could feel his voice shift a bit into hard to take seriously territory.

"I see." She nodded. "From what I could figure out, the issue wasn't you brother though."

"Then what?"

"Well it could be that potion fumes got into your head, or you might have eaten something without washing your hands." Pomfrey said as she got up from the chair. "Let me grab my wand and we can look into it a bit more."

"Oh- Alright." So far so good, Arthur mused to himself. Pomfrey's wand could possibly turn into a problem, though.

She came back and sat next to him.

Surprisingly she didn't instantly cast a spell or anything, she just asked Arthur to take off his robe.

Once Arthur was robeless and got to showcase his amazing grey vest, Pomfrey proceeded.

She asked Arthur if she could see his hand. Arthur obliged, lifting his wand hand for her. She looked at it for a moment, and seemingly casted a spell wordlessly.

Arthur's hand glowed a bit, but Pomfrey shook her head. "Which hand did Andrew touch?"

"My left hand, I think?"

"May I see that one as well?"

Arthur nodded, and lifted his left hand to be held by Pomfrey. She did the same routine, but this time it wasn't just a slight glow.

The yellow green glow lacked in certain parts, where instead the colour was red. Once the glow faded, Arthur had a burnt mark he didn't have before. It was shaped like a hand grapping onto his, it must have been from Andrew.

"How peculiar." She squinted her eyes a bit. "It's rarely that bright of a red."

"What does it mean?"

"Well it must have hurt quite a bit."

"Well, it did."

Pomfrey took her wand in her hand again, but didn't yet proceed. "How would you describe how it felt?"

"It was like a strong sting." Arthur shrugged, he was not giving the pain the proper description at all. He didn't even want to try to remember the pain, as it only excited as a black hole in his mind. Which Arthur found strange, you would think a pain like that wouldn't be so easily forgotten.

"Strong, for certain." She flicked her wand, and nothing happened.

"Madam?"

"Hm." She flicked it again, but once again nothing happened.

"Is something wrong?"

"I have to be honest." She sighed. "I have no clue what happened to your hand."

"Oh- That's ..horrible." Arthur sounded like a horrible actor.

"..Yes, it is certainly horrible." She didn't look amused. "I will hav-"

Abruptly, someone knocked on the door.

"I will have to explain later." She looked bothered once again. Pomfrey got up and strode to the door, and unlocked it.

"Can you fix it, now?!" A very frustrated squeak came from in front of Pomfrey, Arthur felt like the voice was familiar, but felt a bit un-sure of who it belonged to.

"No, we've still not figured out what's blocking your magic."

"Well hurry it up!" Then it clicked, it must have been Malfoy.

"We're doing it as fast as we can-"

"Doesn't seem like it." Yeah it had to be Malfoy.

"Forgive me, but there's nothing we can do about it right now."

"Ugh, fine, whatever." He groaned. "Just hurry it up."

"I'll see what I can do." She said, and closed the door again.

After a bit, she returned to Arthur, looking like the encounter would have never happened. "Sorry for the interruption."

"It's fine." Arthur was very intrigued by the whole encounter if he was honest, so it wasn't that Malfoy just sucked at magic- It really was something blocking his magic, or someone.

"Anyways," Pomfrey continued, "I will have to ask you to come by again later, when I am more prepared for a bigger examination."

"Uh- I really don't think that's necessary."

"Are you sure?"

"I have a choice?"

"Well, as long as it doesn't happen again we can ignore it."

"Really?"

"There are a lot of things that happen in Hogwarts that are hard to explain. If we deeply look into all of them many people will be left un-treated." She sighed. "It is not a good system in my opinion, but I can't force people into anything."

"I see." Arthur begun putting his robe back on. "When will the burn scar go away?"

"It should be back to normal by morning." Pomfrey got up. "If anything strange happens please come back, it can be something big."

"I'll keep it in mind." Arthur got up as well. "Can I get a paper note to give to Professor Snape?"

Pomfrey shook her head:" I'll tell him later."

"Oh- Okay." Arthur left the room.

As he was walking to the common room, he noticed many of his classmates running wildy past him. They were celebrating that it was raining, seemingly excitedly running into the cold rain.

When Arthur was younger he and his brothers would jump in puddles, even Owen wanted to. He felt old for some reason.

"Arthur!" Mike(, possibly, as Arthur was still unsure what that kid's name was.) shouted to him from the end of the group.

"Oh- Uh, what is it?"

"Do you wanna come play with us?"

"Why?"

"Why?" He tilts his head. "Who cares why? It's fun!"

Arthur felt a flush of emotion. "..Oh yeah, who cares." He nods to himself.

"..So." Mike tilts his head, clearly confused by him. "You coming or what?"

"I think I might later, not sure." He shook his head.

"Okay then?" Mike ran off afterwards.

Arthur turned back to return to his track towards the common room.

 _"_ _Who cares why?"_ Resounded in his head, how peculiar. Did he really need to completely understand his reasoning, if he knew it was wrong? He wasn't sure if that was truly the best conclusion, or even right, but it was an idea.

He walked within the common room, and proceeded towards his sofa, only to find it taken. Someone else had sat on his sofa, and was doing homework. Arthur was quite annoyed by this, but if that's what they wanted then he might as well go to his room.

And so, Arthur sat on his bed. He did his homework, and then decided he should really start seeing what he was going to do with that hairclip of misery in his pocket.

Once he reached for it, he found a crumbled old letter with it. He had completely forgotten he was supposed to write to his father. "Well, I've been busy." He thought to himself and placed it right back into the pocket.

He got the hairclip out with his rope sleeve covering his skin. As he tried to look at it a bit more, he soon found it hard to work with sleeves.

Arthur opened his travel trunk and put on his mittens that his grandma had knitted for him, they were soft and nice.

He preceded to grap a possibly dangerous dark magic item with them, for some reason it seemed to shake slightly in his arms.

With the hairclip in hand, his dark arts book on his lap, and a nice warm bed underneath him, he could properly analyse the item.

Arthur shifted through the pages, looking through the charms it had listed. Page after page it was mostly nothing similar, and it was getting repetive quickly.

Then one charm caught his eye. It was a very simple charm, just Ostendente but placed within an item. It didn't let one see magic as bright light, but it did make the hairclip react to specified "colour" of magic. If it would find that specified magic, it would vibrate slightly.

Arthur turned his gaze towards the hairclip in his mitten, it was still shaking slightly. Did Arthur have that colour of magic? What colour was Lukas even looking for?

He could only theorize, but the possibility of him searching for dark magic seemed a bit obvious-especially since Lukas didn't seem to have checked his hairclip in any other situation than the one when he was enveloped in it.

Arthur placed the Hairclip back into his pocket, shut the book, and fell on his back on the bed.

He knew what the hairclip was now, what next? Would he just face Lukas and say "Hey I stole stuff from you, be my friend." That would never work.

He closed his eyes, and rested there in silence. He heard talking through the walls, but it was too muffled to bother him.

"Who cares why?" He thought to himself, Arthur felt like it was important. Sadly he had no idea of why so.

Lukas would probably care why as much as Arthur did, at least Arthur would freak out about someone stealing his stuff.

The squinted his eyes, and realized something. Lukas probably wouldn't care. Arthur had stolen from him that was it. No matter how much he would apologise, or explain his reasoning, no-one would trust anyone after that.

He couldn't even keep it a secret. That would mean he would lie to Lukas, not that he would let him talk to him.

He inhaled inaudibly, Arthur was frustrated.

Somehow though- As the night went on, he got a plan.

Lukas waited for the dark stones of the Dungeon wall to move aside, it was late once again. The nightly sessions had started to slowly take a toll on him, but it wasn't like he had a choice.

Not that Lukas could sleep even if he tried. Someone had stolen his hairclip, and he had a small hunch on who it could be- Which didn't help. He felt stressed out, lost and confused.

Not that it was anything new to him.

When the wall closed back up behind him, he had already arrived to the Common room entrance. Even if he wasn't going to be able to relax, he had to keep the fantasy of being a normal student who spent his nights in the common room up.

The wall opened upon the correct password being said, and Lukas walked in.

The common room was quiet, but Lukas had stumbled upon an un-wanted person too many times there. He decided to be careful, and looked around the corner before walking through.

To not much surprise, Arthur was there. He was sitting politely on that weird sofa of his, tapping his fingers on a book cover.

It was more than obvious that he was nervous- Lukas was good with these things.

Lukas took a deep breath, he felt uncomfortable, somewhat tense. He didn't want to show Arthur any of this, and so he straightened his back, and showcased his distaste on his face.

With his book in the other hand and his wand in the other- Lukas walked to the main part of the common room.

The first few steps went well, but then he realized something discomforting. Arthur was staring at him. Lukas decided to ignore this, as difficult as it was.

He progressed almost past Arthur- but of course the boy would want him to suffer. "Wait- Lukas, I want to talk."

Lukas stood silent, he couldn't walk.

"I know you don't want to, but I really need to get this out."

Lukas turned to look at Arthur. He could only hope his face showed more strength than he was feeling. "Did you forget what I said?"

He seemed to breathe in, the whole situation seemed as heavy to Arthur as it was to Lukas. "That's why I need to talk to you." He started digging his pocket.

In the awkward silence, Arthur pulled out a crushed piece of papyrus. That didn't seem to help his nervousness. After pushing it back in, Arthur finally pulled a shiny piece of metal with his sleeve.

Lukas couldn't hold back the actual rush of emotions he was feeling. Anger, fear, confusion and full on anxiety. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, even when he had predicted it.

"Here." He held his hand out.

"What did you do to it?" Lukas said, his voice was stern and accusatory.

"What- Nothing." Arthur seemed to not have expected Lukas reaction. "I didn't do anything to it."

Lukas lifted his wand, with a scarily accurate flick he made the hairclip float. Wingarium Leviosa was something very simple for him, Arthur seemed impressed.

Lukas dropped the hairclip between his book's pages, and slammed the covers. He wasn't impressed in the slightest.

Afterwards Lukas turned around to leave.

Arthur got up from the chair, halting Lukas instantly. "Look, just hear me out."

Lukas stayed silent. God, was that guy ever going to give up? Didn't he make it obvious enough that he wanted to be alone?

"I'm not that smart. "Arthur said, he sounded weirdly emotional. Lukas wanted to say 'Yup' but it felt wrong.

"When I came to Hogwarts, I wanted to be the greatest wizard that has ever existed." He kept on babbling. "I knew it was an impossible goal, but I couldn't face reality."

Lukas gripped his wand a little tighter, he was so confused. Why was this guy still talking to him- Couldn't he just leave him alone?

"And I kept pushing and pushing, telling myself I didn't need anyone." Arthur kept explaining pointless things. "…But I'm just a stupid kid." Arthur's voice cracked, but he kept pushing on.

"I don't know what I'm doing, it's stupid reckless shit."

Lukas had trouble figuring out how to stand, or where to put his hands. He wasn't feeling that great, he had never been good in conformations.

"I don't know if you've experience anything similar, but.." Arthur trailed off, did he not know what he was getting at?

"I want to stop lying to myself." He continued.

Lukas bit his lip. He wanted to say something, but it was as if he was being blocked- muted, even.

"And I know I did a really stupid thing, I shouldn't have stolen from you." Arthur continued, seemingly desperate for a reply. "I can't reverse what I did, but if there's _anything_ I can do for you- Just tell me."

Lukas had to force his eyes shut to do anything, but with that he could turn his head towards Arthur.

Arthur saw an expression that looked un-satisfied, annoyed even, but it had a tint of understanding. It was strange, but it made him feel a bit less desperate.

"You used Ostendente to see people's magic, right?"

Arthur nodded.

"Did you see Vlad Popescu's?"

Arthur's eyes widened, even Lukas had noticed. "You mean the red eyed kid?"

"Him." Lukas nodded.

"Yeah, I did."

Lukas seemed interested. "Meet me in the library tomorrow after class." he gave a short order, and walked off.

Arthur had no intention to even try to stop him. There was no good in stopping Lukas.

He stood there, and watched as Lukas walked to the other areas of the common room. Arthur was left in the dark, but he was filling with a sense of success.

All month he had been struggling with achieving anything, but somehow he had finally tapped into the mystery he had been faced with. Lukas actually willingly would talk to him, even if it was just for information.

Arthur sighed in relief, he had been more nervous than word could describe. He felt sweaty and gross, but triumphant.

He had actually done something.

* * *

 **ABOUT THE POPESCU THING... Romania has quite an incredible amount of weird fanon surronding him, and I've noticed from multiple Romanians I've met that most of them don't really enjoy Romania's character and find his human name either offensive or hilariously bad.**

 **Using his fanon human name feels a bit conflicting to me, but I don't trust myself enough to really decide on another name (and am not in contact with those before mentioned romanians).**

 **The story itself will tackle why someone would name their kid Vlad of all things, but you'll all just have to work with Popescu. I doubt it'll bother too many people**

 ** _too_ much? Hh**

 **More notes after the next chapter. Besides I prefer letting the fic speak for itself on most things.**


	8. There was a daugther

**Prepare for a rather un-eventful chapter, folks.**

* * *

That school day, Arthur was rejuvenated. He could follow the class excellently, and spells seemed easier than ever before. From his calculations he had gained almost 60 and more points for Slytherin by just answering correctly all day. Arthur felt un-stoppable.

Lukas seemed to be back to normal as well, he was walking around with his blue book with golden décor. Arthur and his eyes met a few times during the day, but they just turned away. It seemed like they were finally thinking on the same wavelength, the awkwardness had become easier to digest.

The only negative Arthur could properly find in the whole day, was the fact that Bonnefoy had stolen his turns once again. It wasn't enough to discourage him though, he was pumped up!

Although he had started thinking of how maybe this joy wasn't warranted. He was just apologising to Lukas by giving him information, not breaking down walls and fixing the universe.

He felt delighted though, and he wasn't going to ruin that for himself.

After class, he found himself walking to the library. He had decided to take his fabric covered book with him, just in case it was needed.

Once he arrived to the far back, he saw Lukas sitting there. He didn't seem that different from usual terrifying emotionless behaviour, other than looking slightly more down than typical.

"Hey." Arthur greeted, with a lift of his hand. He tried to sound calm and collected, somewhat careful even.

Lukas raised his head towards him, those deep blue eyes were as piercing as ever. "Hey."

"Should I- Uh, sit?" Being around Lukas was nerve wrecking. He was hard to read, somewhat hostile, and all around better than Arthur at everything.

Lukas nodded, and Arthur proceeded. They sat about half a meter from each other, possibly because neither of them felt comfortable any closer.

"So.." Arthur tapped the table.

Lukas seemed tense.

"Are you sure this is a safe spot to talk?" Arthur was also, in fact, tense.

"It is." Lukas nodded. They were both speaking at an almost whispering level, it did help both of them talk at all. "Everyone is quiet and talks in whispers, no-one can over hear anyone."

"Well, now that you mention it," Arthur looked around, "I can't make sense of what anyone is saying." With bookshelves, footsteps, people turning pages and whispers, it was definitely difficult if not impossible to overhear them.

"Exactly." Lukas wasn't looking at Arthur anymore, his eyes had returned to examine the excellent work the table's creators had done.

"So, you wanted to learn about Vlad?"

"Him." He nodded.

"Should I just- Like what do you specifically want to hear?"

"What colour was his magic?"

"Do you know what the colours mean?" Arthur somewhat pointed at the blue book on the table, he felt a bit reluctant, as he doubted Lukas wanted him anywhere close to that book.

Lukas nodded again, his eyes focusing on Arthur's finger. Somewhat expected, but it made Arthur feel quite self-conscious.

"Well, uhm, let's see." Arthur cleared his throat. "It had very dark colours." he explained. "On the outer part of the glow was grey, but the deeper you looked the darker it got."

Lukas seemed to be listening, even though his expression didn't show much. It was as if he was expecting more though.

"There was also this line of magic." Arthur continued, and which seemed to strongly peak Lukas' interest. He had lifted his head slightly.

"It lead to Draco Malfoy's wand hand, and it looked like a dark corrupted ball of black." He was now getting quite into explaining it. "And in the middle there was bright red."

Lukas grabbed his book. He turned the golden décor slightly, revealing the dark book behind the pleasant and calming blue. It appeared he had bookmarked the page, and was now checking something on it.

"Do you think it's the reason Malfoy's magic isn't working properly?" Arthur tried to keep the conversation up, luckily he had quite a lot of questions in need of answers.

"It's likely." Lukas answered quickly, seemingly quite focused.

"Why would Vlad do that?" Arthur placed his palm on his face, since he lacked things to do.

".." Lukas' brows furrowed a little.

Arthur bit his tongue, it seemed that chatting wasn't in Lukas' interests at that moment (if ever).

Lukas seemed to finish reading whatever he was, and then he glanced at the book on Arthur's lap. "Colby Guttuso, right?"

Arthur looked somewhat taken back, he didn't expect Lukas to actually figure that out. He quickly picked it up and placed atop the table. "Yeah! It is."

Lukas stared at the book, somewhat intrigued. "What do you know about Abigail Edge?"

"Never heard of them." Arthur shrugged.

"She's the daughter of Sable Edge and Colby Guttuso." Lukas explained, picking a small photo of a baby from in-between the pages.

"..What?" Arthur was now completely lost. "But Sable Edge died in a freak accident, and Colby went into hiding from You-know-who and-"

Lukas seemed to be waiting for Arthur to stop rambling, which he did.

"Sable Edge staged the accident." Lukas explained. "She ran off with her daughter, to escape Colby and you-know-who."

"W-Why would she do that?" Arthur was so incredibly lost. "Colby speaks of Sable in such a loving way, and he never mentions a daughter." Arthur franticly opened his book, looking through it, maybe he had missed something?

"You know how Sable and Colby were working for you-know-who, right?" Lukas was rather un-sure of how accurate the info in Arthur's book really was.

"Yeah, I do." He opened the opening pages, which explained the whole thing. "Their job was to test the limits of the dark arts, and find new ways of harvesting it. Then when they tried to create the greatest spell known to mankind, it backfired and the whole room was set off in a fiery explosion."

Lukas shook his head. "The spell wasn't great in any way." he said, there was slight passion in his toneless voice. "It was supposed to wipe out all who had muggle blood inside their veins."

".." Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had never actually heard what the spell was meant to do, but Colby had praised it so many times that he had just started believing him. Colby seemed to have been very trustworthy in all the other areas.

"Sable tinkered with the spell, forcing it to blow up." Lukas showed his opening pages. "She apparated from the building just before it was too dangerous."

"..That's why they never found a body" Arthur continued.

"She had gotten pregnant, but only found out after leaving." Lukas explained, not seemingly looking at anything specific in the book. He was probably just avoiding eye contact.

Arthur couldn't blame him, he wasn't able to really focus on anyone's face at that moment.

"I think Vlad might be related to Sable." Lukas said, out of no-where.

"What?!" Arthur voice was at a speaking level now, which made him halt after saying it. People turned to look at them, but they turned away quickly after.

Lukas didn't seem pleased.

Arthur sighed, god he was stupid sometimes. "Sorry, I just.. This is just very un-expected."

Lukas nodded, surprisingly.

"Just.. How would Vlad be related to the greatest Dark arts user of the century?" He meant greatest with a strong emphasis, as most dark arts users weren't that great.

"Sable's daughter would about the age as someone's mom at that point." Lukas explained. "So wouldn't it make sense, that the kid who seems to have dark arts deeply rooted in his magic at such a young age- Would be related to them?"

"It.. Could make sense." Arthur nodded. "I suppose dark art caused corruption could be the reason to how red his eyes are."

"Sable and Colby both pretty messed up because of the dark arts." Lukas shrugged.

"Kind of.. spooky, huh?" Arthur felt somewhat empty for a moment.

Lukas closed his book, turning it back to blue. "Terrifying."

Arthur hadn't given much thought to even the possibility of corrupted magic, to be frank he didn't even want to give it a thought.

There was a silence where neither of them really did that much.

"What do you suggest we do about it, though?" Arthur turned to look at Lukas, to break the silence.

Lukas kept looking at his legs. He took a surprisingly long time to answer. "He cursed a student."

"Should we tell a teacher?"

Lukas thought for a moment again. "If they haven't figured it out themselves, I doubt they would believe us." Lukas picked his book and grapped it close to his chest. "They would ask us how we know, and you're already too close to being found out."

"..I suppose." Arthur sighed, it felt stupid, but he didn't want to risk being found out and banned from Hogwarts.

"Let's figure out why he would do that." Lukas got up from his chair.

Arthur got up too, he felt excited. Lukas was actually talking to him, and said "Let's" himself, he wanted to do something with him. He wasn't sure why, but it was thrilling.

"How do you think we should go about doing that?" Arthur grabbed his book too, saying "we" felt almost scary to a degree now that he acknowledge the fact he was saying it.

Lukas shrugged. "I guess just stalk him."

Arthur couldn't help getting the stupidest dorkiest smile on his face. something about Lukas' emotionless tone and the un-expect straight forwards way of saying something so weird was just hilarious to him. He held back a bit though- he didn't want to make Lukas think he loved Stalking or something similar. "Stalk? like follow his every move like a mental case?"

"Something like that." Lukas seemed to be serious with this suggestion. "..And if you know anyone who would know Vlad, then you can talk to them."

"I don't really know that many people." Arthur smiled through his sigh.

"Not surprising."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arthur asked, still cheerful. It felt more like banter than anything rude.

Lukas looked away, seemingly un-interested in answering. Arthur noticed that just before he looked completely away from him, there was a smaller than small smile on Lukas' lips.

Afterwards Lukas and he agreed to meet in the library the next day too.

"So we can't talk in the common room?" Arthur felt somewhat disappointed because of the sudden re-distancing.

"I don't like spending time there."

Arthur felt the question he had held in his mind for too long, rushing to finally get out: "Where do you go then?"

Lukas didn't seem to approve of his question. "It's private." It was simple and quick, like always.

"Ah."

"We only talk because you have information that I need." Lukas mumbled, and walked off.

Arthur knew that it was a lie though. He had already told Lukas everything that he wouldn't be able to figure out himself- Though he couldn't admit it to himself, as he didn't want to force himself in to Lukas' life.

Arthur walked out of the library a bit after Lukas, he didn't want to even accidently end up shadowing him. He walked a bit, thinking about homework. Why was it called homework if it's done in the common room? Is the common room his home? Did he mishear the term? Was it actual called something else? Arthur was confused.

Well no matter why or what it was called, Arthur had arrived to the common room. He sat on his wonderful sofa, and begun doing whatever-work it was.

He tried to sit comfortably, but something felt rather un-comfortable by his leg. Arthur quickly realized that something in his pocket was the crumbled up letter his dad had written him. It had become a spiky ball of papyruslicious misery.

Arthur probably should really write back.

He placed the misery on the table, and did his homework. He wanted to make sure he had his priorities in check.

Once he finally finished reading about hairy goat legs, he could finally tackle that letter.

He decided to reply shortly and simply:

" _Hey_

 _Look dad, I was just very tired. The change from home life to school life was very sudden and drastic, so I had a burnout. I visited the Hospital wing, and they told me everything was in order._

 _I'll be coming home for Christmas._

 _\- Arthur_ "

He got an envelope from Mike, and got up to take the letter to the Owlery.

Arthur was happy to know he had learnt the way there already, it made the whole thing much easier.

Not that Arthur was very surprised, but he found Owen there.

"Oh, hey Arthur." He greeted with a warm smile, he didn't look that relaxed.

"Hey," Arthur greeted, "You really spend time here, huh?"

"Honestly not, you've just catched my at weird times." Owen said, as he dodged some poop and tiny creature bones to get closer to his brother.

"Is it even allowed for students to just hang out with Owls? Don't they get bothered by it?" Arthur said, he didn't really care but he might as well talk to Owen.

"That's not important." Owen ignored the question. "So what are you doing here?"

"I got a letter for dad."

"You still haven't sent it?" Owen looked a bit worried. "Dad's going to get angry."

"Well I'll send it now." He walked forwards a bit, scanning for a familiar owl.

"Dorothy left already." Owen followed his little brother. "You can send it with Desiré though, if you want."

"Of course Dad's owl would get impatient." Arthur groaned, as they walked over to Desiré. She was a smaller owl, though the same species as Dorothy. The usual white face and brown body, though Desiré had all limbs intact.

"Is it really okay? Don't you need her for anything?" Arthur watched as Owen allowed Desiré to step onto his hand.

"Nah, I don't need to send that many letters." He seemed to enjoy having Desiré on his arm. "I can use the other school Owls if I need to, anyways."

"If you say so." Arthur placed the letter onto its leg.

"She enjoys flying anyways, we might as well let her have some fun." Owen smiled at his Owl.

With great elegance, Desiré flew out of sight.

They stood there for a moment, trying to still see where she was at. There was something majestic about Owls, that most wizards could agree on.

"So.." Owen turned towards his little brother. "How's your hand?"

"Oh- I went to see Pomfrey, there's not wrong with it." Arthur lifted his hand, to show the unwounded skin.

"Ah, if you say so." Owen nodded a bit. "Have you made any friends?"

Arthur blinked a few times to stall. "Well- no. Not exactly."

"No rush." Owen smiled again, it seemed to be a trend.

"I suppose." Arthur shrugged, that seemed to be a trend too. "I'll head to the common room now."

"You going to that little sofa, again?" He tilted his head, looking awfully amused.

"..Maybe."

* * *

 **Hope ya got some joy out of that, and are intrested to read some more.  
Honestly I am not that good with words and find them not being my type of medium, so people enjoying my clumsily written story is quite a thrilling thing to notice.**

 **If you would like more, please leave a review on your way out- Although no-one is forcing you to do so, I hope.**


	9. Almost partners in crime

**I'm not too intrested in this fic anymore, sorry about that.**  
 **But I have like 14 chapters left un-posted so I'll just throw them here.**

 **I might? Continue it? But I won't promise anything.**

Arthur sat down to eat some breakfast, next to Lukas. They had seen each other in the common room early in the day, and decided to go eat together. Lukas explained that there was something he wanted to say as soon as possible, and Arthur didn't mind.

Arthur sat down to eat some breakfast, next to Lukas. They had seen each other in the common room early in the day, and decided to go eat together. Lukas explained that there was something he wanted to say as soon as possible, and Arthur didn't mind.

They had arrived there quite late into the morning, so there weren't that many people around. Arthur would have thought that Lukas would be an early bird, but maybe staying up as late as he did meant otherwise. Biting into his toast, he saw Lukas taking off his hairclip.

"Do you see how it's shaking?"

"..Goodness." Arthur hadn't even noticed how much it was moving, it wasn't something you would notice far away- But close by it was more than obvious that it was shaking violently.

Lukas looked behind them, far across the room sat a familiar face. He was laughing with some other kids, looking very much not like a dark wizard.

"Does he really affect it that much from this distance?" The Gryffindors and Slytherins were at opposite sides of the hall, which would make it ridiculous to work that far.

"I enhanced it's range." Lukas explained, placing it back on his head. It didn't seem as shaky there.

"Doesn't it bother you that it's shakes on your head like that?" Arthur looked at it, he was somewhat lying to himself, as it wasn't honestly shaking that much.

"It's range is worse when a lot of it's surface is covered." by surface he probably meant his hair.

"Ah." Arthur nodded in understanding. He continued: "Was that the thing you wanted to tell me?"

Lukas shook his head. "I wanted to mention the rumours I've heard of Vlad."

"Hm?" Arthur tilted his head, this had to be at least a little interesting.

"Mike has a Gryffindor friend he sees in the hall sometimes, when I leave the library." Lukas explained. "I often over hear parts of their conversations."

"So what do they say?"

"Apparently Vlad's ability to cast spells has gotten far better as time progresses."

"Isn't that natural?"

"In an un-natural way." Lukas cleared up, he didn't seem impressed with Arthur. "In the sense that he couldn't even get his wand to spark, but now he can cast spells like he would have always been a master at it."

Arthur's eyes widened a little: "Do you think he is taking it from Malfoy?"

"If you didn't see him having any other spell lines, then it would be the only option that makes sense." Lukas looked a bit less un-impressed.

Arthur finished his toast- they were both thoughtfully silent for a while. "What was his base power then?"

Lukas turned to look at Arthur with a questioning look.

"If he can't cast anything, but somehow still casts dark arts spell just like that?" Arthur placed his hand on the table. "It just doesn't make sense."

"It could be that his magic is just so corrupt it doesn't let normal magic to even work?"

"That makes no sense, though." Arthur replied. Lukas looked away quite quickly, the table side seemed to be interesting again. "Even You-know-who could cast all kinds of spells, even thought he was the most corrupt thing in existence.

"Ah." Lukas got up from the table.

"You're leaving?" Arthur looked a bit restlessly at the somewhat un-finished breakfast.

"I said what I needed to." He got onto his feet and started walking, but was halted by the sound of a few late birds flying in. They were owls, and one of them was clearly Dorothy.

Arthur made space in front of his to make sure a big bird that his father's owl was, wouldn't know everything over. If his father would tell him that the owl was magically made larger, he wouldn't be surprised in the least.

Lukas seemed to have returned to his spot by the table. Strangely, he seemed almost.. Excited?

Next to Dorothy, landed a small (compared to the giant that was Dorothy) whitish owl. It had a very funny face, at least in Arthur's opinion, and cute black line like patterns. It was holding a letter that looked in-credibly white, and lacked any kind of seal. It had blue text that Arthur failed to read, as Lukas quickly grabbed the letter.

Meanwhile Dorothy flew away before Arthur could react, and to his surprise: A small red letter laid there in front of him.

"Hey guys! Look! Arthur got a Howler!" Stephan from the far end of the table said in a bit above average voice. Even without shouting, the news went through the hall quick.

Arthur stared at the letter. He wasn't sure what to do. What could he do? Why would someone send him a Howler? He was freaking out.

"You should open it." Lukas said, taking steps back. It wasn't very reassuring. Lukas' letter was firmly placed between his blue book's covers. As if to protect it from whatever Arthur had been delivered. "It can explode."

"I know what a Howler is!" He with frustration heightened his voice. Lukas seemed to be taken aback by this, or he might have backed away because of the Howler itself.

Arthur reached for the letter- the people around him were staring at him with no care for his personal space. Not that Howlers could be highly personal, they would be heard by everyone there no matter what.

He grabbed it, and opened it pulling his face as far from his hands as he could.

"Arthur!" It stared "It's dad." It didn't start too angrily? There was quite a lot of frustration in it, just waiting to be set free.

Everyone was listening, apparently they had nothing better to do.

"I would like to ask," Ahem, "Why have you not written back?!" Oh, there the shouting was.

"I'M TOLD THAT MY SON IS SICK, AND THAT HE PROMISED A LETTER FOR ME, WHERE IS MY LETTER?"

"Sheesh" Arthur thought, he felt embarrassed on a level that was almost physically painful.

"IS YOUR HAND BROKEN? CAN YOU NOT WRITE? WHY DON'T YOU ASK YOUR BROTHERS TO DO IT FOR YOU? WHY ARE YOU ALL KEEPING ME IN THE DARK?!" He kept at it, Arthur's dad had always been a horribly persistent person.

"I KNOW YOU ARE ALL GROWING UP, AND DON'T NEED ME AS MUCH AS BEFORE. STILL, I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR LIVES."

"Oh god." Arthur thought, now his dad was just rambling.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE."

Arthur could hear the desperation of a middle aged man in the voice, it was truly horrifying.

Ahem: "Anyways, I hope you're okay."

"Dad."

Then the Howler bursted into flames, leaving only ash.

"Yo, Arthur." Mike spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen to the great hall. "Is your dad okay?"

Arthur stared at the ash on his table. "I really don't know." He could have sworn he sent a letter earlier, how did his dad not-

Desiré then flew in, and dropped a letter to Arthur.

He opened it, only to find a very embarrassed father apologising that he had sent a Howler only to have an owl give him the answer he wanted.

Arthur covered his face with his hands, groaning. He did love his dad, but god he could be an idiot.

He sighed, pushing the letter in his pocket. The chatter in the great hall seemed to slowly return, Arthur could hear some of them talk about it specifically.

Lukas had seemingly disappeared somewhere, in the middle of the chaos. Arthur silently finished his breakfast. He did have to explain the second letter to Mike and Stephan (and their friend group), but other than that no-one seemed to bother him.

After the lunch period, he could finally join everyone in class.

No-one bought the Howler up in his class. Lukas didn't talk to him, but he did ask to borrow his quill. Arthur wasn't sure why, as Lukas himself had a quill.

Lukas simply answered "I want to compare." and then gave his quill back.

That was all of their interactions during the classes, including the breaks where everyone would move from one class to another. The small 1st year migrations had become less common, they definitely still excited- They just were more flexible, mostly because many students would quickly go to the bathroom, or talk to a friend from another house.

Lukas seemed a bit down every time he and Arthur made eye contact. Confusingly enough, when Arthur was the one looking, without Lukas noticing- He seemed almost blissful behind his emotionless expression.

Once they got out of school for the day, Arthur ventured to the library. Lukas was already there, and he seemed to be writing something.

Arthur walked over to their table. "Hey." He greeted, he was worried he had done something wrong earlier- and so tried to act a bit more gently.

Lukas seemed to be surprised, it wasn't normal of Lukas to not be aware of his surroundings. He quickly slapped his blue book on whatever he was writing on the papyrus, and looked towards Arthur his eyes wide from shock.

"Uhm- You okay?" Arthur asked, and sat on his seat. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Lukas nodded- carefully placing the papyrus between the pages to make sure Arthur couldn't see any of it.

Arthur knew he shouldn't ask, but he really couldn't keep from it either: "Are you writing to the person you got a letter from in the morning?"

Lukas went completely silent for a moment, not moving a single part of his body. Then he nodded.

"Who wrote you?" Arthur kept asking. "I hope it wasn't anything like my dad, heh." He tried to make it sound more equal of a conversation.

".." Lukas looked away, seemingly a bit more relaxed. "It's just.." he slammed his hand softly on the table, looking for the right word. "..My neighbour from home."

"Oh." Arthur seemed a little curious- he hadn't talked to anyone new about their home life since his arrival to Hogwarts. "You probably don't live in Britain, huh?"

Lukas lifted his eyebrows a little, he seemed slightly humoured in melancholical way "It's the accent, isn't it?"

"Well.." Arthur sighed a bit, with a warm smile of his face. "Yeah."

"I'm from Norway." he moved a hair strand away from his face. "But my family moved to Denmark."

"That's exciting." Arthur smiled. "I've always lived in the same house in England."

"You do sound really British." Lukas shrugged. "At least to me." Lukas seemed less down.

"Hah, that's nice." Arthur was enjoying the situation, as well.

Arthur decided to try to keep the conversation up, as he found it nice. "So you're close to your neighbour?"

Lukas held the book close to his chest. "Close enough." he seemed a bit tense again. "I would rather not talk about him right now."

"Oh- don't worry, we can talk about something else." Arthur backed away from the subject fast, he could still save the situation if he was careful.

Lukas placed the book back down, switching it to black again. "I have a list of people Vlad seems to be friendly with." He placed a papyrus piece on the table in front of Arthur.

"Where in hell did you get this?" Arthur furrowed his brows, he was both amazed and a little freaked out.

"I have a good source." Lukas explained simply, "he wouldn't tell me about his daily schedule though."

"If you say so." Arthur looked through the list, it had full names and houses labelled on it. It also seemed to be written by Lukas himself, if the absolutely astonishing handwriting really belonged to a 11 year old.

One name popped out above the rest. "Hey- I think I've talked to Brook."

"You have?"

"Yeah, we were on the same boat when we went to Hogwarts."

"Oh."

Arthur looked at the part about half-way through the list, which read "Brook Horton, Hufflepuff." he was glad that Brook had gotten into Hufflepuff like she had wanted to.

"I could go talk to her." He felt excited, not only because it was an okay lead- But also because he really wanted to apologise to Brook about the boat ride.

"Alright." Lukas shrugged, he didn't seem as excited. "I'll go ask her whereabouts." He got up.

"Can I come too?" Arthur asked from his seat.

"You can go try to figure out where Vlad is at." Lukas said, he seemed surprisingly stern.

"Oh- Right, yes." He nodded and got up.

"Don't let him see you." Lukas added, before walking out of sight.

Arthur gave him yet another nod, and went his own way.

He knew that the Gryffindor common room was in one of the towers, although he was unsure which. If Arthur would have to conclude that Vlad was there, their mission would get much more difficult.

All they had to do was find good enough proof of Vlad's evil doings that wouldn't make the two of them suspects, and they could say that they did at least one good thing that year- Also save Malfoy, or something. They were given the chance to do good, so they had to act on it.

Arthur found himself partaking in his hobby of wandering aimlessly, again. He tried to put more thought into it, try to think about where he would go if he were a cool kid.

Did he know what cool kids were like? He thought to himself for a moment. The only cool kids who had ever talked to him were Mike and Stephan, what did they usually do other than sit in a weird circle with their squad in the common room.

Oh right, they went outside and played hide and seek or something else.

Arthur did an excellent U-turn and headed towards the doors to leave the building.

He soon found himself at a small outdoor part, that was surrounded on each side by hallways with roofs and windows. On top of that, in the middle there was a small opening to the outdoor air, which housed a few benches, some grass and a tree.

Arthur almost walked right onto the grass area, but when he noticed that he wasn't alone, he quickly rushed behind one of the windows. He looked at the group, and soon realized that he had found what he was looking for.

A small group of Gryffindors were making annoying loud noise, laughing and doing stupid things. Not surprising, Arthur rolled his eyes. One of the Gryffindors was clearly Vlad, he was sitting on the back part of the bench with his red eyes clearly visible.

"I didn't know Howlers could be sad." One of the gryffindors giggled, it wasn't exactly a degrading giggle- But Arthur was a little hurt.

"Who ever Sluther-"

"Oh my god you said slut." One of the other Gryffindor boys started laughing.

"Yeah! I said it! It was a mistake okay?"

"It's still funny." The boy kept laughing.

Vlad lifted his hand. "Hey, calm down."

The boy's laughter faded a bit. "I'm just saying."

"Well it is funny." Vlad shrugged. "The house should change it's name to Slutherin to be honest."

The boys seemed to be laughing in unision. Arthur couldn't belive how easily they were amused.

"I'm not sure if Slytherins are that bad?" One of the boys shrugged.

"Well maybe not all of them." Vlad waved his hand a bit dismissively. "But enough bad apples in a pie makes it rotten."

"Is that one of those things your mom always says?" The others asked.

"Yeah, she likes pie a lot for some reason."

"My mom makes really good pie."

Arthur couldn't help but to feel as though he had gotten nothing important out of this, other than the fact that Vlad hanged out there. He decided that it was enough info, and decided to return back to the library.

He wasn't sure if Vlad noticed him, but it's not like he can accuse Arthur of spying.

He arrive to the Library a bit after, he was glad to see Lukas there already. Lukas lifted his hand to greet him.

Arthur did the same and sat down onto his seat once again. "Did you find Brook?"

"She apparently spends time mostly in the Hufflepuff common room." Lukas shrugged. "But she can be catched while she is heading there after class."

"Alright, great." Arthur nodded. "Now we just have to figure out where the common room is."

"It's in the basement." Lukas replied rather quickly.

"Our basement?"

"The less dead-looking one."

"Ah."

Lukas shifted in his seat. "Did you find Vlad?"

"Yeah." Arthur said, a little bit proud of himself.

Lukas seemed genuinely surprised. "Oh."

"You thought I wouldn't find him, huh?" Arthur felt a little defeated.

"I thought he would be in the common room."

"He was in one of the court yards."

Lukas tilted his head to the side. "Alright then."

"..I suppose I'll go talk to Brook after school tomorrow."

Lukas didn't say anything, he seemed to agree though. "I'll try to figure out what spell he is using."

"Mhm." Arthur smiled a bit. He was actually having quite a lot of fun with Lukas, even though he wasn't much of a talker.

And so, they went their separate ways.

Nothing much happened the next day, Arthur ate his breakfast alone. Lukas and him didn't honestly talk at all that day. Arthur did feel a little bit discouraged by the fact, but it wasn't enough to ruin his mood of absolute neutrality (or nervous spazzing if compared to Lukas)

After class, he rushed to a spot he knew a Hufflepuffs would usually go past of. Once he arrived, Arthur realized the issue with the whole idea. The place had no spot a person could possibly just stand at without looking like a douche. Arthur knew for a fact that he was not a douche, so he had to figure out something else.

He looked around nervously, where could he possibly stand and wait at?

Maybe he should wait? Wouldn't that look even more stupid? He should maybe just like he was walking over, and oh! Hello Brook, yes it is I, we met on the boat, haha.

"Hey Arthur!" Suddenly the only female voice other than his mom that would ever talk to him, talked to him.

"Hi-" He turned around, it seemed that Brook was the speediest in the class. "Brook- Hey what's up?"

"Nothing too special." She was smiling widely. "Other than the fact I'm studying in a freaking magic castle of magic."

"You're still excited about that?" Arthur was humoured.

"Well yeah? Picture if you learnt you could study on the moon or something, wouldn't that be exciting to you?"

"Hm, I suppose." He nodded. "If I learnt that I would be a moon-alien, and had to learn the ways of moon-aliens on the moon, then yeah, probably."

Brook was giggling, Arthur couldn't believe he had made a girl laugh. "Exactly!"

"Yeah.." Arthur felt awkward again.

"What about you?" Brook didn't seem awkward in the slightest.

"Oh- You know, doing things." Arthur tried to speak like a human being. "School- School things, yeah."

"That's cool." She smiled. "You must have been busy, since we haven't seen each other much, huh?"

"Heh- Yeah I suppose." He shrugged. "I guess Hufflepuffs and Slytherins have pretty different schedules."

"Wouldn't surprise me." She supposed. "I've made a lot of friends with Gryffindors, so maybe your houses are tried to be kept apart."

"That's intresting." Arthur saw a chance to bring up Vlad, he just had to take it. "Gryffindors, huh? Anyone specificly?"

"Why?" Brook titled her head a little.

"Oh- I just, you know." He coughed into his hand to clear his throat. "My classmates have some Gryffindor friends, so I wanted to know if they line up."

"You could have just said so." Brook seemed to belive him "That's a little weird but what can you do, knowledge is knowledge."

She took a moment to think, possibly to make sure she had their names completely in check. "I suppose there's Seamus, Richard, Conrad, Vla-" Then she stopped.

"Hm?"

"Oh sorry-" She placed he hand on her cheek, looking rather apologetic. "I forgot that you and Vlad didn't really get along."

"Oh- Heh, yeah I suppose." Arthur tried to act like he wasn't thirsty for some knowledge. "We haven't really talked for a long time though. We did bump once, but we didn't talk."

"I'm glad?" Brook awkwardly smiled.

Arthur felt nervous. "Uhm- How is he? Not that it's for me to know."

"Hm? I think Vlad is doing good." She seemed a bit more relaxed. "We haven't talked much either."

"Really?" Arthur listened carefully.

"Mhm, he was alright for a while but then he started to get popular amongst his class." She sighed, but then she charged right back up again: "I- I mean- It's great, splendid even that he's got a ton of friends."

"But?" Arthur tried to look reassuring.

"But.." She looked at her feet. "I just, feel like he's not being that honest with anyone? I- I dunno, I probably sound stupid."

"No- Don't worry, just let it out." As much as Arthur was pretending, he still did care for Brook, since she had never been anything but nice around him.

"Just.." Brook looked back up at Arthur. "It just doesn't seem like he is even being honest with himself. I'm- I'm kind of worried about him."

"Worried?"

"I- I sound like an idiot right?" She let out a forced laugh.

"No- No, I think you might be right."

"What?" She seemed confused.

Arthur coughed to clear his throat a bit again, just to stall for time. He was pretty un-sure of what to say at this point, and he knew he was a horrid liar. "I just- There's been rumours that his magic is getting stronger? Or something?"

"You've heard them too?" She was almost hopeful looking. "Goodness, I thought I was alone."

"The world's full of surprises." Arthur smiled to her supportively.

"Yeah.." She smiled back. "It's just.. I don't know how magic exactly works," She moved her hands while explaining, "but it doesn't feel right for a muggleborn like him to be so good, I guess."

"Even I'm not that great, and I am from a full wizard family." He mumbled.

"You don't think I'm just being jealous?"

"What? Of course not."

Brook seemed happy enough.

"Well, uhm." Arthur took a step away, he wasn't sure if he had really learnt anything important, but staying longer could get suspicious.

"Wait-" Brook looked up at him. "I.."

"What is it?"

"I want to tell you something."

"Hm?"

"Not here-" She seemed nervous. "It's private." She looked around looking for a place they could possibly go. There was a un-used room door nearby, lucky for them. "Let's go there."

"If you say so." Arthur followed to girl, they were just between speed walking and running.

They entered a very small room, it seemed like it wasn't really used for anything. There was one big dusty mirror placed atop some wooden boxes, but nothing other than that. Other than the fact that now two students had entered it, leaving their shoe marks in the dust.

Brook closed the door carefully, making sure no-one saw them. "Alright.." She breathed in uncertainly.

"What's wrong?" Arthur stared at her in the dark.

She took out her wand, performing an excellent Lumos. "I just-" She crossed her hands. "There's something I need to tell _someone_ , but I don't know who."

"I'm all ears." Arthur assured.

"Don't tell anyone." Brook almost commanded.

Arthur nodded, he felt a little hesitant.

"Alright, so.. uhm." She awkwardly stood there hands crossed. "I met Vlad on the Hogwarts train."

"The Hogwarts Express?"

"Yeah, that one." She didn't seem pleased by the interruption. Arthur held back his words after that.

"Of course, I was quite freaked out by the red eyes." She explained. "But he seemed really nice, so I gave him a chance."

Arthur listened with his full attention.

"We sat together, and learnt that we were both muggleborns. With that we bonded really quickly, which was nice." She sounded clear and to the point. "Then, we started talking about all those accidental magic usings we've done as kids."

"Then uhm.." Brook seemed to tense up a little. "Well- First of all I explained how one time I played hide and seek with my friends, and they couldn't find me because I was somehow high up a tree and they had to call the firefighters to get me down."

Arthur smiled a bit, but it wasn't enough to distract anyone.

"And Vlad, well.. Just" Brook clenched his fist a bit. "He told me how he accidently ..got his uhm, dad.." Her voice cracked a bit.

Arthur stared into Brook's eyes, with interest. "Can you say it?"

"He was sent to the hospital-" Brook suddenly let out, as one big fast reply. "And he never apparently.. Came back.."

Arthur looked away, his thoughts were raging wildly. "You.. Mean he?"

Brook nodded, biting her lip.

Arthur furrowed his brows. "Wouldn't he be arrested if he did that?"

"Apparently he was given a warning?" Brook said, she sounded as doubting as Arthur. "Since he couldn't help it, or something? It wasn't like he used any.. like.. bad spell or something.."

"That's pretty hard to believe." Arthur sighed.

"Well he didn't tell many details? It seemed hard for even him to tell." She let her hands out of the position they had been almost locked into, and looked irritated and unhappy.

"Brook, I'm- I'm really glad you told me." Arthur tried to calm the situation down a bit.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone?"

"..I won't." He shook his head. "I promise." He lied, but a bit of a voice crack wouldn't be suspicious to someone so anxious as Brook was in that situation.

"Thanks." Brook held her head. "I'm.. You know glad I could tell you. Sorry it was so sudden."

"It's fine." Arthur smiled to her.

She smiled back.

Arthur left the dusty room, after thanking Brook again.

He felt like he was on the right track.

They had arrived there quite late into the morning, so there weren't that many people around. Arthur would have thought that Lukas would be an early bird, but maybe staying up as late as he did meant otherwise. Biting into his toast, he saw Lukas taking off his hairclip.

"Do you see how it's shaking?"

"..Goodness." Arthur hadn't even noticed how much it was moving, it wasn't something you would notice far away- But close by it was more than obvious that it was shaking violently.

Lukas looked behind them, far across the room sat a familiar face. He was laughing with some other kids, looking very much not like a dark wizard.

"Does he really affect it that much from this distance?" The Gryffindors and Slytherins were at opposite sides of the hall, which would make it ridiculous to work that far.

"I enhanced it's range." Lukas explained, placing it back on his head. It didn't seem as shaky there.

"Doesn't it bother you that it's shakes on your head like that?" Arthur looked at it, he was somewhat lying to himself, as it wasn't honestly shaking that much.

"It's range is worse when a lot of it's surface is covered." by surface he probably meant his hair.

"Ah." Arthur nodded in understanding. He continued: "Was that the thing you wanted to tell me?"

Lukas shook his head. "I wanted to mention the rumours I've heard of Vlad."

"Hm?" Arthur tilted his head, this had to be at least a little interesting.

"Mike has a Gryffindor friend he sees in the hall sometimes, when I leave the library." Lukas explained. "I often over hear parts of their conversations."

"So what do they say?"

"Apparently Vlad's ability to cast spells has gotten far better as time progresses."

"Isn't that natural?"

"In an un-natural way." Lukas cleared up, he didn't seem impressed with Arthur. "In the sense that he couldn't even get his wand to spark, but now he can cast spells like he would have always been a master at it."

Arthur's eyes widened a little: "Do you think he is taking it from Malfoy?"

"If you didn't see him having any other spell lines, then it would be the only option that makes sense." Lukas looked a bit less un-impressed.

Arthur finished his toast- they were both thoughtfully silent for a while. "What was his base power then?"

Lukas turned to look at Arthur with a questioning look.

"If he can't cast anything, but somehow still casts dark arts spell just like that?" Arthur placed his hand on the table. "It just doesn't make sense."

"It could be that his magic is just so corrupt it doesn't let normal magic to even work?"

"That makes no sense, though." Arthur replied. Lukas looked away quite quickly, the table side seemed to be interesting again. "Even You-know-who could cast all kinds of spells, even thought he was the most corrupt thing in existence.

"Ah." Lukas got up from the table.

"You're leaving?" Arthur looked a bit restlessly at the somewhat un-finished breakfast.

"I said what I needed to." He got onto his feet and started walking, but was halted by the sound of a few late birds flying in. They were owls, and one of them was clearly Dorothy.

Arthur made space in front of his to make sure a big bird that his father's owl was, wouldn't know everything over. If his father would tell him that the owl was magically made larger, he wouldn't be surprised in the least.

Lukas seemed to have returned to his spot by the table. Strangely, he seemed almost.. Excited?

Next to Dorothy, landed a small (compared to the giant that was Dorothy) whitish owl. It had a very funny face, at least in Arthur's opinion, and cute black line like patterns. It was holding a letter that looked in-credibly white, and lacked any kind of seal. It had blue text that Arthur failed to read, as Lukas quickly grabbed the letter.

Meanwhile Dorothy flew away before Arthur could react, and to his surprise: A small red letter laid there in front of him.

"Hey guys! Look! Arthur got a Howler!" Stephan from the far end of the table said in a bit above average voice. Even without shouting, the news went through the hall quick.

Arthur stared at the letter. He wasn't sure what to do. What could he do? Why would someone send him a Howler? He was freaking out.

"You should open it." Lukas said, taking steps back. It wasn't very reassuring. Lukas' letter was firmly placed between his blue book's covers. As if to protect it from whatever Arthur had been delivered. "It can explode."

"I know what a Howler is!" He with frustration heightened his voice. Lukas seemed to be taken aback by this, or he might have backed away because of the Howler itself.

Arthur reached for the letter- the people around him were staring at him with no care for his personal space. Not that Howlers could be highly personal, they would be heard by everyone there no matter what.

He grabbed it, and opened it pulling his face as far from his hands as he could.

"Arthur!" It stared "It's dad." It didn't start too angrily? There was quite a lot of frustration in it, just waiting to be set free.

Everyone was listening, apparently they had nothing better to do.

"I would like to ask," Ahem, "Why have you not written back?!" Oh, there the shouting was.

"I'M TOLD THAT MY SON IS SICK, AND THAT HE PROMISED A LETTER FOR ME, WHERE IS MY LETTER?"

"Sheesh" Arthur thought, he felt embarrassed on a level that was almost physically painful.

"IS YOUR HAND BROKEN? CAN YOU NOT WRITE? WHY DON'T YOU ASK YOUR BROTHERS TO DO IT FOR YOU? WHY ARE YOU ALL KEEPING ME IN THE DARK?!" He kept at it, Arthur's dad had always been a horribly persistent person.

"I KNOW YOU ARE ALL GROWING UP, AND DON'T NEED ME AS MUCH AS BEFORE. STILL, I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR LIVES."

"Oh god." Arthur thought, now his dad was just rambling.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE."

Arthur could hear the desperation of a middle aged man in the voice, it was truly horrifying.

Ahem: "Anyways, I hope you're okay."

"Dad."

Then the Howler bursted into flames, leaving only ash.

"Yo, Arthur." Mike spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen to the great hall. "Is your dad okay?"

Arthur stared at the ash on his table. "I really don't know." He could have sworn he sent a letter earlier, how did his dad not-

Desiré then flew in, and dropped a letter to Arthur.

He opened it, only to find a very embarrassed father apologising that he had sent a Howler only to have an owl give him the answer he wanted.

Arthur covered his face with his hands, groaning. He did love his dad, but god he could be an idiot.

He sighed, pushing the letter in his pocket. The chatter in the great hall seemed to slowly return, Arthur could hear some of them talk about it specifically.

Lukas had seemingly disappeared somewhere, in the middle of the chaos. Arthur silently finished his breakfast. He did have to explain the second letter to Mike and Stephan (and their friend group), but other than that no-one seemed to bother him.

After the lunch period, he could finally join everyone in class.

No-one bought the Howler up in his class. Lukas didn't talk to him, but he did ask to borrow his quill. Arthur wasn't sure why, as Lukas himself had a quill.

Lukas simply answered "I want to compare." and then gave his quill back.

That was all of their interactions during the classes, including the breaks where everyone would move from one class to another. The small 1st year migrations had become less common, they definitely still excited- They just were more flexible, mostly because many students would quickly go to the bathroom, or talk to a friend from another house.

Lukas seemed a bit down every time he and Arthur made eye contact. Confusingly enough, when Arthur was the one looking, without Lukas noticing- He seemed almost blissful behind his emotionless expression.

Once they got out of school for the day, Arthur ventured to the library. Lukas was already there, and he seemed to be writing something.

Arthur walked over to their table. "Hey." He greeted, he was worried he had done something wrong earlier- and so tried to act a bit more gently.

Lukas seemed to be surprised, it wasn't normal of Lukas to not be aware of his surroundings. He quickly slapped his blue book on whatever he was writing on the papyrus, and looked towards Arthur his eyes wide from shock.

"Uhm- You okay?" Arthur asked, and sat on his seat. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Lukas nodded- carefully placing the papyrus between the pages to make sure Arthur couldn't see any of it.

Arthur knew he shouldn't ask, but he really couldn't keep from it either: "Are you writing to the person you got a letter from in the morning?"

Lukas went completely silent for a moment, not moving a single part of his body. Then he nodded.

"Who wrote you?" Arthur kept asking. "I hope it wasn't anything like my dad, heh." He tried to make it sound more equal of a conversation.

".." Lukas looked away, seemingly a bit more relaxed. "It's just.." he slammed his hand softly on the table, looking for the right word. "..My neighbour from home."

"Oh." Arthur seemed a little curious- he hadn't talked to anyone new about their home life since his arrival to Hogwarts. "You probably don't live in Britain, huh?"

Lukas lifted his eyebrows a little, he seemed slightly humoured in melancholical way "It's the accent, isn't it?"

"Well.." Arthur sighed a bit, with a warm smile of his face. "Yeah."

"I'm from Norway." he moved a hair strand away from his face. "But my family moved to Denmark."

"That's exciting." Arthur smiled. "I've always lived in the same house in England."

"You do sound really British." Lukas shrugged. "At least to me." Lukas seemed less down.

"Hah, that's nice." Arthur was enjoying the situation, as well.

Arthur decided to try to keep the conversation up, as he found it nice. "So you're close to your neighbour?"

Lukas held the book close to his chest. "Close enough." he seemed a bit tense again. "I would rather not talk about him right now."

"Oh- don't worry, we can talk about something else." Arthur backed away from the subject fast, he could still save the situation if he was careful.

Lukas placed the book back down, switching it to black again. "I have a list of people Vlad seems to be friendly with." He placed a papyrus piece on the table in front of Arthur.

"Where in hell did you get this?" Arthur furrowed his brows, he was both amazed and a little freaked out.

"I have a good source." Lukas explained simply, "he wouldn't tell me about his daily schedule though."

"If you say so." Arthur looked through the list, it had full names and houses labelled on it. It also seemed to be written by Lukas himself, if the absolutely astonishing handwriting really belonged to a 11 year old.

One name popped out above the rest. "Hey- I think I've talked to Brook."

"You have?"

"Yeah, we were on the same boat when we went to Hogwarts."

"Oh."

Arthur looked at the part about half-way through the list, which read "Brook Horton, Hufflepuff." he was glad that Brook had gotten into Hufflepuff like she had wanted to.

"I could go talk to her." He felt excited, not only because it was an okay lead- But also because he really wanted to apologise to Brook about the boat ride.

"Alright." Lukas shrugged, he didn't seem as excited. "I'll go ask her whereabouts." He got up.

"Can I come too?" Arthur asked from his seat.

"You can go try to figure out where Vlad is at." Lukas said, he seemed surprisingly stern.

"Oh- Right, yes." He nodded and got up.

"Don't let him see you." Lukas added, before walking out of sight.

Arthur gave him yet another nod, and went his own way.

He knew that the Gryffindor common room was in one of the towers, although he was unsure which. If Arthur would have to conclude that Vlad was there, their mission would get much more difficult.

All they had to do was find good enough proof of Vlad's evil doings that wouldn't make the two of them suspects, and they could say that they did at least one good thing that year- Also save Malfoy, or something. They were given the chance to do good, so they had to act on it.

Arthur found himself partaking in his hobby of wandering aimlessly, again. He tried to put more thought into it, try to think about where he would go if he were a cool kid.

Did he know what cool kids were like? He thought to himself for a moment. The only cool kids who had ever talked to him were Mike and Stephan, what did they usually do other than sit in a weird circle with their squad in the common room.

Oh right, they went outside and played hide and seek or something else.

Arthur did an excellent U-turn and headed towards the doors to leave the building.

He soon found himself at a small outdoor part, that was surrounded on each side by hallways with roofs and windows. On top of that, in the middle there was a small opening to the outdoor air, which housed a few benches, some grass and a tree.

Arthur almost walked right onto the grass area, but when he noticed that he wasn't alone, he quickly rushed behind one of the windows. He looked at the group, and soon realized that he had found what he was looking for.

A small group of Gryffindors were making annoying loud noise, laughing and doing stupid things. Not surprising, Arthur rolled his eyes. One of the Gryffindors was clearly Vlad, he was sitting on the back part of the bench with his red eyes clearly visible.

"I didn't know Howlers could be sad." One of the gryffindors giggled, it wasn't exactly a degrading giggle- But Arthur was a little hurt.

"Who ever Sluther-"

"Oh my god you said slut." One of the other Gryffindor boys started laughing.

"Yeah! I said it! It was a mistake okay?"

"It's still funny." The boy kept laughing.

Vlad lifted his hand. "Hey, calm down."

The boy's laughter faded a bit. "I'm just saying."

"Well it is funny." Vlad shrugged. "The house should change it's name to Slutherin to be honest."

The boys seemed to be laughing in unision. Arthur couldn't belive how easily they were amused.

"I'm not sure if Slytherins are that bad?" One of the boys shrugged.

"Well maybe not all of them." Vlad waved his hand a bit dismissively. "But enough bad apples in a pie makes it rotten."

"Is that one of those things your mom always says?" The others asked.

"Yeah, she likes pie a lot for some reason."

"My mom makes really good pie."

Arthur couldn't help but to feel as though he had gotten nothing important out of this, other than the fact that Vlad hanged out there. He decided that it was enough info, and decided to return back to the library.

He wasn't sure if Vlad noticed him, but it's not like he can accuse Arthur of spying.

He arrive to the Library a bit after, he was glad to see Lukas there already. Lukas lifted his hand to greet him.

Arthur did the same and sat down onto his seat once again. "Did you find Brook?"

"She apparently spends time mostly in the Hufflepuff common room." Lukas shrugged. "But she can be catched while she is heading there after class."

"Alright, great." Arthur nodded. "Now we just have to figure out where the common room is."

"It's in the basement." Lukas replied rather quickly.

"Our basement?"

"The less dead-looking one."

"Ah."

Lukas shifted in his seat. "Did you find Vlad?"

"Yeah." Arthur said, a little bit proud of himself.

Lukas seemed genuinely surprised. "Oh."

"You thought I wouldn't find him, huh?" Arthur felt a little defeated.

"I thought he would be in the common room."

"He was in one of the court yards."

Lukas tilted his head to the side. "Alright then."

"..I suppose I'll go talk to Brook after school tomorrow."

Lukas didn't say anything, he seemed to agree though. "I'll try to figure out what spell he is using."

"Mhm." Arthur smiled a bit. He was actually having quite a lot of fun with Lukas, even though he wasn't much of a talker.

And so, they went their separate ways.

Nothing much happened the next day, Arthur ate his breakfast alone. Lukas and him didn't honestly talk at all that day. Arthur did feel a little bit discouraged by the fact, but it wasn't enough to ruin his mood of absolute neutrality (or nervous spazzing if compared to Lukas)

After class, he rushed to a spot he knew a Hufflepuffs would usually go past of. Once he arrived, Arthur realized the issue with the whole idea. The place had no spot a person could possibly just stand at without looking like a douche. Arthur knew for a fact that he was not a douche, so he had to figure out something else.

He looked around nervously, where could he possibly stand and wait at?

Maybe he should wait? Wouldn't that look even more stupid? He should maybe just like he was walking over, and oh! Hello Brook, yes it is I, we met on the boat, haha.

"Hey Arthur!" Suddenly the only female voice other than his mom that would ever talk to him, talked to him.

"Hi-" He turned around, it seemed that Brook was the speediest in the class. "Brook- Hey what's up?"

"Nothing too special." She was smiling widely. "Other than the fact I'm studying in a freaking magic castle of magic."

"You're still excited about that?" Arthur was humoured.

"Well yeah? Picture if you learnt you could study on the moon or something, wouldn't that be exciting to you?"

"Hm, I suppose." He nodded. "If I learnt that I would be a moon-alien, and had to learn the ways of moon-aliens on the moon, then yeah, probably."

Brook was giggling, Arthur couldn't believe he had made a girl laugh. "Exactly!"

"Yeah.." Arthur felt awkward again.

"What about you?" Brook didn't seem awkward in the slightest.

"Oh- You know, doing things." Arthur tried to speak like a human being. "School- School things, yeah."

"That's cool." She smiled. "You must have been busy, since we haven't seen each other much, huh?"

"Heh- Yeah I suppose." He shrugged. "I guess Hufflepuffs and Slytherins have pretty different schedules."

"Wouldn't surprise me." She supposed. "I've made a lot of friends with Gryffindors, so maybe your houses are tried to be kept apart."

"That's intresting." Arthur saw a chance to bring up Vlad, he just had to take it. "Gryffindors, huh? Anyone specificly?"

"Why?" Brook titled her head a little.

"Oh- I just, you know." He coughed into his hand to clear his throat. "My classmates have some Gryffindor friends, so I wanted to know if they line up."

"You could have just said so." Brook seemed to belive him "That's a little weird but what can you do, knowledge is knowledge."

She took a moment to think, possibly to make sure she had their names completely in check. "I suppose there's Seamus, Richard, Conrad, Vla-" Then she stopped.

"Hm?"

"Oh sorry-" She placed he hand on her cheek, looking rather apologetic. "I forgot that you and Vlad didn't really get along."

"Oh- Heh, yeah I suppose." Arthur tried to act like he wasn't thirsty for some knowledge. "We haven't really talked for a long time though. We did bump once, but we didn't talk."

"I'm glad?" Brook awkwardly smiled.

Arthur felt nervous. "Uhm- How is he? Not that it's for me to know."

"Hm? I think Vlad is doing good." She seemed a bit more relaxed. "We haven't talked much either."

"Really?" Arthur listened carefully.

"Mhm, he was alright for a while but then he started to get popular amongst his class." She sighed, but then she charged right back up again: "I- I mean- It's great, splendid even that he's got a ton of friends."

"But?" Arthur tried to look reassuring.

"But.." She looked at her feet. "I just, feel like he's not being that honest with anyone? I- I dunno, I probably sound stupid."

"No- Don't worry, just let it out." As much as Arthur was pretending, he still did care for Brook, since she had never been anything but nice around him.

"Just.." Brook looked back up at Arthur. "It just doesn't seem like he is even being honest with himself. I'm- I'm kind of worried about him."

"Worried?"

"I- I sound like an idiot right?" She let out a forced laugh.

"No- No, I think you might be right."

"What?" She seemed confused.

Arthur coughed to clear his throat a bit again, just to stall for time. He was pretty un-sure of what to say at this point, and he knew he was a horrid liar. "I just- There's been rumours that his magic is getting stronger? Or something?"

"You've heard them too?" She was almost hopeful looking. "Goodness, I thought I was alone."

"The world's full of surprises." Arthur smiled to her supportively.

"Yeah.." She smiled back. "It's just.. I don't know how magic exactly works," She moved her hands while explaining, "but it doesn't feel right for a muggleborn like him to be so good, I guess."

"Even I'm not that great, and I am from a full wizard family." He mumbled.

"You don't think I'm just being jealous?"

"What? Of course not."

Brook seemed happy enough.

"Well, uhm." Arthur took a step away, he wasn't sure if he had really learnt anything important, but staying longer could get suspicious.

"Wait-" Brook looked up at him. "I.."

"What is it?"

"I want to tell you something."

"Hm?"

"Not here-" She seemed nervous. "It's private." She looked around looking for a place they could possibly go. There was a un-used room door nearby, lucky for them. "Let's go there."

"If you say so." Arthur followed to girl, they were just between speed walking and running.

They entered a very small room, it seemed like it wasn't really used for anything. There was one big dusty mirror placed atop some wooden boxes, but nothing other than that. Other than the fact that now two students had entered it, leaving their shoe marks in the dust.

Brook closed the door carefully, making sure no-one saw them. "Alright.." She breathed in uncertainly.

"What's wrong?" Arthur stared at her in the dark.

She took out her wand, performing an excellent Lumos. "I just-" She crossed her hands. "There's something I need to tell _someone_ , but I don't know who."

"I'm all ears." Arthur assured.

"Don't tell anyone." Brook almost commanded.

Arthur nodded, he felt a little hesitant.

"Alright, so.. uhm." She awkwardly stood there hands crossed. "I met Vlad on the Hogwarts train."

"The Hogwarts Express?"

"Yeah, that one." She didn't seem pleased by the interruption. Arthur held back his words after that.

"Of course, I was quite freaked out by the red eyes." She explained. "But he seemed really nice, so I gave him a chance."

Arthur listened with his full attention.

"We sat together, and learnt that we were both muggleborns. With that we bonded really quickly, which was nice." She sounded clear and to the point. "Then, we started talking about all those accidental magic usings we've done as kids."

"Then uhm.." Brook seemed to tense up a little. "Well- First of all I explained how one time I played hide and seek with my friends, and they couldn't find me because I was somehow high up a tree and they had to call the firefighters to get me down."

Arthur smiled a bit, but it wasn't enough to distract anyone.

"And Vlad, well.. Just" Brook clenched his fist a bit. "He told me how he accidently ..got his uhm, dad.." Her voice cracked a bit.

Arthur stared into Brook's eyes, with interest. "Can you say it?"

"He was sent to the hospital-" Brook suddenly let out, as one big fast reply. "And he never apparently.. Came back.."

Arthur looked away, his thoughts were raging wildly. "You.. Mean he?"

Brook nodded, biting her lip.

Arthur furrowed his brows. "Wouldn't he be arrested if he did that?"

"Apparently he was given a warning?" Brook said, she sounded as doubting as Arthur. "Since he couldn't help it, or something? It wasn't like he used any.. like.. bad spell or something.."

"That's pretty hard to believe." Arthur sighed.

"Well he didn't tell many details? It seemed hard for even him to tell." She let her hands out of the position they had been almost locked into, and looked irritated and unhappy.

"Brook, I'm- I'm really glad you told me." Arthur tried to calm the situation down a bit.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone?"

"..I won't." He shook his head. "I promise." He lied, but a bit of a voice crack wouldn't be suspicious to someone so anxious as Brook was in that situation.

"Thanks." Brook held her head. "I'm.. You know glad I could tell you. Sorry it was so sudden."

"It's fine." Arthur smiled to her.

Arthur sat down to eat some breakfast, next to Lukas. They had seen each other in the common room early in the day, and decided to go eat together. Lukas explained that there was something he wanted to say as soon as possible, and Arthur didn't mind.

They had arrived there quite late into the morning, so there weren't that many people around. Arthur would have thought that Lukas would be an early bird, but maybe staying up as late as he did meant otherwise. Biting into his toast, he saw Lukas taking off his hairclip.

"Do you see how it's shaking?"

"..Goodness." Arthur hadn't even noticed how much it was moving, it wasn't something you would notice far away- But close by it was more than obvious that it was shaking violently.

Lukas looked behind them, far across the room sat a familiar face. He was laughing with some other kids, looking very much not like a dark wizard.

"Does he really affect it that much from this distance?" The Gryffindors and Slytherins were at opposite sides of the hall, which would make it ridiculous to work that far.

"I enhanced it's range." Lukas explained, placing it back on his head. It didn't seem as shaky there.

"Doesn't it bother you that it's shakes on your head like that?" Arthur looked at it, he was somewhat lying to himself, as it wasn't honestly shaking that much.

"It's range is worse when a lot of it's surface is covered." by surface he probably meant his hair.

"Ah." Arthur nodded in understanding. He continued: "Was that the thing you wanted to tell me?"

Lukas shook his head. "I wanted to mention the rumours I've heard of Vlad."

"Hm?" Arthur tilted his head, this had to be at least a little interesting.

"Mike has a Gryffindor friend he sees in the hall sometimes, when I leave the library." Lukas explained. "I often over hear parts of their conversations."

"So what do they say?"

"Apparently Vlad's ability to cast spells has gotten far better as time progresses."

"Isn't that natural?"

"In an un-natural way." Lukas cleared up, he didn't seem impressed with Arthur. "In the sense that he couldn't even get his wand to spark, but now he can cast spells like he would have always been a master at it."

Arthur's eyes widened a little: "Do you think he is taking it from Malfoy?"

"If you didn't see him having any other spell lines, then it would be the only option that makes sense." Lukas looked a bit less un-impressed.

Arthur finished his toast- they were both thoughtfully silent for a while. "What was his base power then?"

Lukas turned to look at Arthur with a questioning look.

"If he can't cast anything, but somehow still casts dark arts spell just like that?" Arthur placed his hand on the table. "It just doesn't make sense."

"It could be that his magic is just so corrupt it doesn't let normal magic to even work?"

"That makes no sense, though." Arthur replied. Lukas looked away quite quickly, the table side seemed to be interesting again. "Even You-know-who could cast all kinds of spells, even thought he was the most corrupt thing in existence.

"Ah." Lukas got up from the table.

"You're leaving?" Arthur looked a bit restlessly at the somewhat un-finished breakfast.

"I said what I needed to." He got onto his feet and started walking, but was halted by the sound of a few late birds flying in. They were owls, and one of them was clearly Dorothy.

Arthur made space in front of his to make sure a big bird that his father's owl was, wouldn't know everything over. If his father would tell him that the owl was magically made larger, he wouldn't be surprised in the least.

Lukas seemed to have returned to his spot by the table. Strangely, he seemed almost.. Excited?

Next to Dorothy, landed a small (compared to the giant that was Dorothy) whitish owl. It had a very funny face, at least in Arthur's opinion, and cute black line like patterns. It was holding a letter that looked in-credibly white, and lacked any kind of seal. It had blue text that Arthur failed to read, as Lukas quickly grabbed the letter.

Meanwhile Dorothy flew away before Arthur could react, and to his surprise: A small red letter laid there in front of him.

"Hey guys! Look! Arthur got a Howler!" Stephan from the far end of the table said in a bit above average voice. Even without shouting, the news went through the hall quick.

Arthur stared at the letter. He wasn't sure what to do. What could he do? Why would someone send him a Howler? He was freaking out.

"You should open it." Lukas said, taking steps back. It wasn't very reassuring. Lukas' letter was firmly placed between his blue book's covers. As if to protect it from whatever Arthur had been delivered. "It can explode."

"I know what a Howler is!" He with frustration heightened his voice. Lukas seemed to be taken aback by this, or he might have backed away because of the Howler itself.

Arthur reached for the letter- the people around him were staring at him with no care for his personal space. Not that Howlers could be highly personal, they would be heard by everyone there no matter what.

He grabbed it, and opened it pulling his face as far from his hands as he could.

"Arthur!" It stared "It's dad." It didn't start too angrily? There was quite a lot of frustration in it, just waiting to be set free.

Everyone was listening, apparently they had nothing better to do.

"I would like to ask," Ahem, "Why have you not written back?!" Oh, there the shouting was.

"I'M TOLD THAT MY SON IS SICK, AND THAT HE PROMISED A LETTER FOR ME, WHERE IS MY LETTER?"

"Sheesh" Arthur thought, he felt embarrassed on a level that was almost physically painful.

"IS YOUR HAND BROKEN? CAN YOU NOT WRITE? WHY DON'T YOU ASK YOUR BROTHERS TO DO IT FOR YOU? WHY ARE YOU ALL KEEPING ME IN THE DARK?!" He kept at it, Arthur's dad had always been a horribly persistent person.

"I KNOW YOU ARE ALL GROWING UP, AND DON'T NEED ME AS MUCH AS BEFORE. STILL, I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR LIVES."

"Oh god." Arthur thought, now his dad was just rambling.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE."

Arthur could hear the desperation of a middle aged man in the voice, it was truly horrifying.

Ahem: "Anyways, I hope you're okay."

"Dad."

Then the Howler bursted into flames, leaving only ash.

"Yo, Arthur." Mike spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen to the great hall. "Is your dad okay?"

Arthur stared at the ash on his table. "I really don't know." He could have sworn he sent a letter earlier, how did his dad not-

Desiré then flew in, and dropped a letter to Arthur.

He opened it, only to find a very embarrassed father apologising that he had sent a Howler only to have an owl give him the answer he wanted.

Arthur covered his face with his hands, groaning. He did love his dad, but god he could be an idiot.

He sighed, pushing the letter in his pocket. The chatter in the great hall seemed to slowly return, Arthur could hear some of them talk about it specifically.

Lukas had seemingly disappeared somewhere, in the middle of the chaos. Arthur silently finished his breakfast. He did have to explain the second letter to Mike and Stephan (and their friend group), but other than that no-one seemed to bother him.

After the lunch period, he could finally join everyone in class.

No-one bought the Howler up in his class. Lukas didn't talk to him, but he did ask to borrow his quill. Arthur wasn't sure why, as Lukas himself had a quill.

Lukas simply answered "I want to compare." and then gave his quill back.

That was all of their interactions during the classes, including the breaks where everyone would move from one class to another. The small 1st year migrations had become less common, they definitely still excited- They just were more flexible, mostly because many students would quickly go to the bathroom, or talk to a friend from another house.

Lukas seemed a bit down every time he and Arthur made eye contact. Confusingly enough, when Arthur was the one looking, without Lukas noticing- He seemed almost blissful behind his emotionless expression.

Once they got out of school for the day, Arthur ventured to the library. Lukas was already there, and he seemed to be writing something.

Arthur walked over to their table. "Hey." He greeted, he was worried he had done something wrong earlier- and so tried to act a bit more gently.

Lukas seemed to be surprised, it wasn't normal of Lukas to not be aware of his surroundings. He quickly slapped his blue book on whatever he was writing on the papyrus, and looked towards Arthur his eyes wide from shock.

"Uhm- You okay?" Arthur asked, and sat on his seat. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Lukas nodded- carefully placing the papyrus between the pages to make sure Arthur couldn't see any of it.

Arthur knew he shouldn't ask, but he really couldn't keep from it either: "Are you writing to the person you got a letter from in the morning?"

Lukas went completely silent for a moment, not moving a single part of his body. Then he nodded.

"Who wrote you?" Arthur kept asking. "I hope it wasn't anything like my dad, heh." He tried to make it sound more equal of a conversation.

".." Lukas looked away, seemingly a bit more relaxed. "It's just.." he slammed his hand softly on the table, looking for the right word. "..My neighbour from home."

"Oh." Arthur seemed a little curious- he hadn't talked to anyone new about their home life since his arrival to Hogwarts. "You probably don't live in Britain, huh?"

Lukas lifted his eyebrows a little, he seemed slightly humoured in melancholical way "It's the accent, isn't it?"

"Well.." Arthur sighed a bit, with a warm smile of his face. "Yeah."

"I'm from Norway." he moved a hair strand away from his face. "But my family moved to Denmark."

"That's exciting." Arthur smiled. "I've always lived in the same house in England."

"You do sound really British." Lukas shrugged. "At least to me." Lukas seemed less down.

"Hah, that's nice." Arthur was enjoying the situation, as well.

Arthur decided to try to keep the conversation up, as he found it nice. "So you're close to your neighbour?"

Lukas held the book close to his chest. "Close enough." he seemed a bit tense again. "I would rather not talk about him right now."

"Oh- don't worry, we can talk about something else." Arthur backed away from the subject fast, he could still save the situation if he was careful.

Lukas placed the book back down, switching it to black again. "I have a list of people Vlad seems to be friendly with." He placed a papyrus piece on the table in front of Arthur.

"Where in hell did you get this?" Arthur furrowed his brows, he was both amazed and a little freaked out.

"I have a good source." Lukas explained simply, "he wouldn't tell me about his daily schedule though."

"If you say so." Arthur looked through the list, it had full names and houses labelled on it. It also seemed to be written by Lukas himself, if the absolutely astonishing handwriting really belonged to a 11 year old.

One name popped out above the rest. "Hey- I think I've talked to Brook."

"You have?"

"Yeah, we were on the same boat when we went to Hogwarts."

"Oh."

Arthur looked at the part about half-way through the list, which read "Brook Horton, Hufflepuff." he was glad that Brook had gotten into Hufflepuff like she had wanted to.

"I could go talk to her." He felt excited, not only because it was an okay lead- But also because he really wanted to apologise to Brook about the boat ride.

"Alright." Lukas shrugged, he didn't seem as excited. "I'll go ask her whereabouts." He got up.

"Can I come too?" Arthur asked from his seat.

"You can go try to figure out where Vlad is at." Lukas said, he seemed surprisingly stern.

"Oh- Right, yes." He nodded and got up.

"Don't let him see you." Lukas added, before walking out of sight.

Arthur gave him yet another nod, and went his own way.

He knew that the Gryffindor common room was in one of the towers, although he was unsure which. If Arthur would have to conclude that Vlad was there, their mission would get much more difficult.

All they had to do was find good enough proof of Vlad's evil doings that wouldn't make the two of them suspects, and they could say that they did at least one good thing that year- Also save Malfoy, or something. They were given the chance to do good, so they had to act on it.

Arthur found himself partaking in his hobby of wandering aimlessly, again. He tried to put more thought into it, try to think about where he would go if he were a cool kid.

Did he know what cool kids were like? He thought to himself for a moment. The only cool kids who had ever talked to him were Mike and Stephan, what did they usually do other than sit in a weird circle with their squad in the common room.

Oh right, they went outside and played hide and seek or something else.

Arthur did an excellent U-turn and headed towards the doors to leave the building.

He soon found himself at a small outdoor part, that was surrounded on each side by hallways with roofs and windows. On top of that, in the middle there was a small opening to the outdoor air, which housed a few benches, some grass and a tree.

Arthur almost walked right onto the grass area, but when he noticed that he wasn't alone, he quickly rushed behind one of the windows. He looked at the group, and soon realized that he had found what he was looking for.

A small group of Gryffindors were making annoying loud noise, laughing and doing stupid things. Not surprising, Arthur rolled his eyes. One of the Gryffindors was clearly Vlad, he was sitting on the back part of the bench with his red eyes clearly visible.

"I didn't know Howlers could be sad." One of the gryffindors giggled, it wasn't exactly a degrading giggle- But Arthur was a little hurt.

"Who ever Sluther-"

"Oh my god you said slut." One of the other Gryffindor boys started laughing.

"Yeah! I said it! It was a mistake okay?"

"It's still funny." The boy kept laughing.

Vlad lifted his hand. "Hey, calm down."

The boy's laughter faded a bit. "I'm just saying."

"Well it is funny." Vlad shrugged. "The house should change it's name to Slutherin to be honest."

The boys seemed to be laughing in unision. Arthur couldn't belive how easily they were amused.

"I'm not sure if Slytherins are that bad?" One of the boys shrugged.

"Well maybe not all of them." Vlad waved his hand a bit dismissively. "But enough bad apples in a pie makes it rotten."

"Is that one of those things your mom always says?" The others asked.

"Yeah, she likes pie a lot for some reason."

"My mom makes really good pie."

Arthur couldn't help but to feel as though he had gotten nothing important out of this, other than the fact that Vlad hanged out there. He decided that it was enough info, and decided to return back to the library.

He wasn't sure if Vlad noticed him, but it's not like he can accuse Arthur of spying.

He arrive to the Library a bit after, he was glad to see Lukas there already. Lukas lifted his hand to greet him.

Arthur did the same and sat down onto his seat once again. "Did you find Brook?"

"She apparently spends time mostly in the Hufflepuff common room." Lukas shrugged. "But she can be catched while she is heading there after class."

"Alright, great." Arthur nodded. "Now we just have to figure out where the common room is."

"It's in the basement." Lukas replied rather quickly.

"Our basement?"

"The less dead-looking one."

"Ah."

Lukas shifted in his seat. "Did you find Vlad?"

"Yeah." Arthur said, a little bit proud of himself.

Lukas seemed genuinely surprised. "Oh."

"You thought I wouldn't find him, huh?" Arthur felt a little defeated.

"I thought he would be in the common room."

"He was in one of the court yards."

Lukas tilted his head to the side. "Alright then."

"..I suppose I'll go talk to Brook after school tomorrow."

Lukas didn't say anything, he seemed to agree though. "I'll try to figure out what spell he is using."

"Mhm." Arthur smiled a bit. He was actually having quite a lot of fun with Lukas, even though he wasn't much of a talker.

And so, they went their separate ways.

Nothing much happened the next day, Arthur ate his breakfast alone. Lukas and him didn't honestly talk at all that day. Arthur did feel a little bit discouraged by the fact, but it wasn't enough to ruin his mood of absolute neutrality (or nervous spazzing if compared to Lukas)

After class, he rushed to a spot he knew a Hufflepuffs would usually go past of. Once he arrived, Arthur realized the issue with the whole idea. The place had no spot a person could possibly just stand at without looking like a douche. Arthur knew for a fact that he was not a douche, so he had to figure out something else.

He looked around nervously, where could he possibly stand and wait at?

Maybe he should wait? Wouldn't that look even more stupid? He should maybe just like he was walking over, and oh! Hello Brook, yes it is I, we met on the boat, haha.

"Hey Arthur!" Suddenly the only female voice other than his mom that would ever talk to him, talked to him.

"Hi-" He turned around, it seemed that Brook was the speediest in the class. "Brook- Hey what's up?"

"Nothing too special." She was smiling widely. "Other than the fact I'm studying in a freaking magic castle of magic."

"You're still excited about that?" Arthur was humoured.

"Well yeah? Picture if you learnt you could study on the moon or something, wouldn't that be exciting to you?"

"Hm, I suppose." He nodded. "If I learnt that I would be a moon-alien, and had to learn the ways of moon-aliens on the moon, then yeah, probably."

Brook was giggling, Arthur couldn't believe he had made a girl laugh. "Exactly!"

"Yeah.." Arthur felt awkward again.

"What about you?" Brook didn't seem awkward in the slightest.

"Oh- You know, doing things." Arthur tried to speak like a human being. "School- School things, yeah."

"That's cool." She smiled. "You must have been busy, since we haven't seen each other much, huh?"

"Heh- Yeah I suppose." He shrugged. "I guess Hufflepuffs and Slytherins have pretty different schedules."

"Wouldn't surprise me." She supposed. "I've made a lot of friends with Gryffindors, so maybe your houses are tried to be kept apart."

"That's intresting." Arthur saw a chance to bring up Vlad, he just had to take it. "Gryffindors, huh? Anyone specificly?"

"Why?" Brook titled her head a little.

"Oh- I just, you know." He coughed into his hand to clear his throat. "My classmates have some Gryffindor friends, so I wanted to know if they line up."

"You could have just said so." Brook seemed to belive him "That's a little weird but what can you do, knowledge is knowledge."

She took a moment to think, possibly to make sure she had their names completely in check. "I suppose there's Seamus, Richard, Conrad, Vla-" Then she stopped.

"Hm?"

"Oh sorry-" She placed he hand on her cheek, looking rather apologetic. "I forgot that you and Vlad didn't really get along."

"Oh- Heh, yeah I suppose." Arthur tried to act like he wasn't thirsty for some knowledge. "We haven't really talked for a long time though. We did bump once, but we didn't talk."

"I'm glad?" Brook awkwardly smiled.

Arthur felt nervous. "Uhm- How is he? Not that it's for me to know."

"Hm? I think Vlad is doing good." She seemed a bit more relaxed. "We haven't talked much either."

"Really?" Arthur listened carefully.

"Mhm, he was alright for a while but then he started to get popular amongst his class." She sighed, but then she charged right back up again: "I- I mean- It's great, splendid even that he's got a ton of friends."

"But?" Arthur tried to look reassuring.

"But.." She looked at her feet. "I just, feel like he's not being that honest with anyone? I- I dunno, I probably sound stupid."

"No- Don't worry, just let it out." As much as Arthur was pretending, he still did care for Brook, since she had never been anything but nice around him.

"Just.." Brook looked back up at Arthur. "It just doesn't seem like he is even being honest with himself. I'm- I'm kind of worried about him."

"Worried?"

"I- I sound like an idiot right?" She let out a forced laugh.

"No- No, I think you might be right."

"What?" She seemed confused.

Arthur coughed to clear his throat a bit again, just to stall for time. He was pretty un-sure of what to say at this point, and he knew he was a horrid liar. "I just- There's been rumours that his magic is getting stronger? Or something?"

"You've heard them too?" She was almost hopeful looking. "Goodness, I thought I was alone."

"The world's full of surprises." Arthur smiled to her supportively.

"Yeah.." She smiled back. "It's just.. I don't know how magic exactly works," She moved her hands while explaining, "but it doesn't feel right for a muggleborn like him to be so good, I guess."

"Even I'm not that great, and I am from a full wizard family." He mumbled.

"You don't think I'm just being jealous?"

"What? Of course not."

Brook seemed happy enough.

"Well, uhm." Arthur took a step away, he wasn't sure if he had really learnt anything important, but staying longer could get suspicious.

"Wait-" Brook looked up at him. "I.."

"What is it?"

"I want to tell you something."

"Hm?"

"Not here-" She seemed nervous. "It's private." She looked around looking for a place they could possibly go. There was a un-used room door nearby, lucky for them. "Let's go there."

"If you say so." Arthur followed to girl, they were just between speed walking and running.

They entered a very small room, it seemed like it wasn't really used for anything. There was one big dusty mirror placed atop some wooden boxes, but nothing other than that. Other than the fact that now two students had entered it, leaving their shoe marks in the dust.

Brook closed the door carefully, making sure no-one saw them. "Alright.." She breathed in uncertainly.

"What's wrong?" Arthur stared at her in the dark.

She took out her wand, performing an excellent Lumos. "I just-" She crossed her hands. "There's something I need to tell _someone_ , but I don't know who."

"I'm all ears." Arthur assured.

"Don't tell anyone." Brook almost commanded.

Arthur nodded, he felt a little hesitant.

"Alright, so.. uhm." She awkwardly stood there hands crossed. "I met Vlad on the Hogwarts train."

"The Hogwarts Express?"

"Yeah, that one." She didn't seem pleased by the interruption. Arthur held back his words after that.

"Of course, I was quite freaked out by the red eyes." She explained. "But he seemed really nice, so I gave him a chance."

Arthur listened with his full attention.

"We sat together, and learnt that we were both muggleborns. With that we bonded really quickly, which was nice." She sounded clear and to the point. "Then, we started talking about all those accidental magic usings we've done as kids."

"Then uhm.." Brook seemed to tense up a little. "Well- First of all I explained how one time I played hide and seek with my friends, and they couldn't find me because I was somehow high up a tree and they had to call the firefighters to get me down."

Arthur smiled a bit, but it wasn't enough to distract anyone.

"And Vlad, well.. Just" Brook clenched his fist a bit. "He told me how he accidently ..got his uhm, dad.." Her voice cracked a bit.

Arthur stared into Brook's eyes, with interest. "Can you say it?"

"He was sent to the hospital-" Brook suddenly let out, as one big fast reply. "And he never apparently.. Came back.."

Arthur looked away, his thoughts were raging wildly. "You.. Mean he?"

Brook nodded, biting her lip.

Arthur furrowed his brows. "Wouldn't he be arrested if he did that?"

"Apparently he was given a warning?" Brook said, she sounded as doubting as Arthur. "Since he couldn't help it, or something? It wasn't like he used any.. like.. bad spell or something.."

"That's pretty hard to believe." Arthur sighed.

"Well he didn't tell many details? It seemed hard for even him to tell." She let her hands out of the position they had been almost locked into, and looked irritated and unhappy.

"Brook, I'm- I'm really glad you told me." Arthur tried to calm the situation down a bit.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone?"

"..I won't." He shook his head. "I promise." He lied, but a bit of a voice crack wouldn't be suspicious to someone so anxious as Brook was in that situation.

"Thanks." Brook held her head. "I'm.. You know glad I could tell you. Sorry it was so sudden."

"It's fine." Arthur smiled to her.

She smiled back.

Arthur left the dusty room, after thanking Brook again.

He felt like he was on the right track.

She smiled back.

Arthur left the dusty room, after thanking Brook again.

He felt like he was on the right track.


	10. Taking it easy

October had arrived. Arthur felt like time had become faster, or maybe he was just enjoying his time at Hogwarts more. He and Lukas had started to talk more often, it still was framed as necessary work for tracking down Vlad, but Arthur often found himself chatting about who knows what with Lukas in the library.

"Do you think it could be un-intentional?" Arthur mused to himself, while Lukas scrolled the book trying to find what spell Vlad was using. They had expected that to be the easy part, but there was a surprising amount of magic enhancing spells with or as differing side-effects.

"What do you mean?" Lukas didn't even lift his gaze from the book, it had stopped being a cold un-interested action. His lack of needing to look at Arthur to be polite had started to actually feel rather homely. They both knew the other wouldn't mind, so there was no need changing it.

"If he killed his dad accidentally, then why not this?"

Lukas turned the page, he seemed thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose."

Arthur sighed a bit, it was a mix of frustration and detachment. He felt quite sleepy in the quiet library, listening to the rain outside.

"I don't think the spell is written here." Lukas closed his book.

"Did you check spells that could have it as a side effect?"

"Yes, I did." Lukas said, he seemed a bit annoyed. Arthur didn't mind it though, Lukas clearly didn't mean it as anything mean. They had been looking for one spell for far too long, it would get frustrating to anyone.

"What do you suggest we do?"

Lukas bit his lip a bit, and then opened the book again. He scrolled rather quickly that time, seeming sure of what he was up to.

Arthur looked closely from the side, Lukas usually knew exactly what to do. It was incredible.

He finally stopped flipping pages at the part about potions. "There."

"You suggest we make a potion?"

"Yeah." Lukas nodded, and pushed the book towards Arthur a bit.

Arthur looked through it quickly. The potion was called "Whisker Whisky." which was just silly. He turned to look at Lukas "You sure about this?"

Lukas shrugged. "It sounds like it could work."

Arthur turned back to the book, maybe he just had to read more to have it not sound immensely silly.

It said that if you placed a small amount of the potion to someone's drink, they will start coughing. If they have a spell active, they will be forced to say it's name. After they've said it they'll barf out the potion.

"It seems excessively gross."

"It's the only one that works with active spells in the book."

"Well." Arthur let his head fall to the side a bit. "If it's really the only choice we have, then.."

Lukas nodded.

Arthur looked away un-certainly. "How would we even make this?"

"We need ingrediants, a spot to make it, time, and wands." Lukas listed, almost casually.

"Well we have wands? That's a start."

"And time." Lukas added.

"I won't be here for Christmas though, and apparently it takes a month to get it's effect. If we want to make this soon, then it's going to be hard."

Lukas looked at the table. "Why would we have to get it done before Christmas?"

"..Well I'm sure Malfoy is suffering?" Arthur didn't sound very sure with his point. "I suppose if he gets fixed before the big tests it wouldn't really matter."

"So after Christmas." Lukas seemed to be scanning the ingredients part of the page now. "Many of these seem easy to get."

"Well it does have mud as an ingredient."

"Fancy."

Arthur smiled a bit at the comment. "I think I can bring some of these from home. My dad has a lot of weird stuff."

"Sounds good." Lukas read the page as he listened. "Do you have troll hair there?"

Arthur nodded. "…I somewhat doubt it."

Lukas turned the page, the instructions were a bit clearer there.

Arthur looked through it too.

"Hm.."

"Hm?"

Lukas pointed at a spot in the book. "The troll hair is supposed to be drowned in cold water for a month."

"Well it is the main ingredient."

"We'll have to get some somewhere." Lukas shrugged a bit, he seemed a bit bothered.

"So we get almost all of the ingredients during Christmas, but where do we make it?"

Lukas stared to the distance, it was like he was caught off guard.

Arthur looked at him with slight worry, it was hard to decipher Lukas sometimes.

"I.." He moved a hair off of his face. "I'll think about it."

"Oh- I'll look into it too, then." Arthur nodded, trying to seem sure.

They talked a little longer, but after a bit Lukas explained that he had a letter to send and left.

Lukas had gotten those white letters from his neighbour quite often, At least 3 times a week. He always seemed to answer them as quickly as possible, and there seemed to be a pile of them in-between his blue book's pages. Arthur had noticed that the blue book and the black book had completely different things in-between the pages, which might have been why Lukas allowed Arthur to actually look through the black one.

He had avoided asking too much about them, Arthur didn't exactly need the information.

Arthur knew that at least sometimes Lukas would go to the owlery instead of the common room, but he was still in the dark with where he spent the rest.

When he asked about it from the Key man at one point, he explained that Arthur should just ask Lukas. It didn't seem to work so far.

Arthur was doing what he always did, stalking Vlad. It wasn't that he had exactly decided it to be his newest hobby, but he had found himself following rather often.

Vlad spent most of his time at the court yard, with his weird boy squad. Though, now that it had started getting colder, they've moved onto walking around the castle. They had stolen Arthur's hobby of wondering around aimlessly, and Arthur was taking his revenge by making them his hobby.

He tried to ignore how bad it sounded.

There were 4 Gryffindors, not including Vlad in the group, and one Hufflepuff. They all seemed to like just talking about stupid things, and Arthur had trouble really seeing why any of them were friends.

"You're way too good at charms, Vlad." The hufflepuff said, sounding both annoyed and praising.

"What can I say? I have a gift." His voice was smug, almost ridiculously so.

"Your potion exploded only a few hours ago." One of the gryffindors commented.

"Well maybe my talents don't lay in potions. Not everyone likes potions."

"People who are bad at them don't like them." Another kid giggled.

The one who seemed to actually enjoy potions let out a "Hmph."

"Only a Slytherin can like potions." One of the other kids pushed him a little. "Are you Slutherin?"

"No! Guys, I can like potions."

The other kid pushed him again.

Arthur had noticed that they all seemed to share a very idiotic bond of disliking Slytherins. It seemed to be the only thing they had in common, if being 11 year old boys in a wizard school wasn't enough.

Vlad pushed the guy who kept pushing the other. "Hey, calm down. He can become better at potions than all the Slytherins, and shake their pride."

"Yeah!" The kid who just wants to be accepted for liking potions replied.

"..Yeah, okay, makes sense."

"Are you a pussy?!" The 4th Gryffindor pushed the kid.

Arthur was always quite annoyed by them.

"You're the pussy!" And so the pushing and idiotically violent behaviour continued. Arthur had learnt that most of them were muggleborns, or half-bloods. It didn't surprise him in the least, muggles had always been a violent.. Breed.

He found himself halting his own thoughts, but not examining them further.

He looked most closely at Vlad when he did this. Arthur found his behaviour the most peculiar of the group. At first it seemed like he was just fooling around like any other kid, but the more he looked into it, the more he realized it was more playing along that participating.

Vlad always stood in front of the group, not interacting with the one behind him that often. They pushed and annoyed each other, and Vlad would only turn to look if it got too noticeable. It was like he was a leader that existed in a different plain from the group.

The kid had this smug look on his face no matter where they went, which only changed to mild disinterest and annoyance. It felt un-genuine, it was clear Vlad was hiding something. He didn't seem truly belong.

The vibe was completely opposite of what Stephan let out. Stephan felt prepared are ready, and smiled genuinely. His friends and he always walked in different formations- no-one was clearly the boss. The only reason Stephan stood above the rest was because of his magical ability and how vocal he was.

Arthur decided he had stalked the group enough, they had walked behind a corner. He didn't really feel like following.

He walked down the hall he had been looking through of. Arthur always only heard snippets of their conversations, as he couldn't get very close. Luckily to him, they were a loud bunch.

Arthur walked over to the floating stairs, that he could swear were a safety hazard.

To his surprise and sorrow, Malfoy was going down ones close by with his weird friends. "Can you belive they aren't able to do anything?!"

"Are you sure it's not your fau-"

"If you finish that sentence I'll have my dad evict yours from the ministry."

"..I'm sorry."

"You better be."

Shockingly loud folk, the kids in Hogwarts.

The next few days nothing of note happened either. Arthur sat in the library for a while, doing homework with Lukas while also talking about their evil plan to help people. They had to read on the History of Magic for class, as no-one could actually properly listen to it in class because of the teachers voice.

"Muggle history is far more interesting." Lukas suddenly spoke. He wasn't the type to usually break the silence, making it quite surprising for Arthur.

"Muggle history? How come?" Arthur said, he was more curious of who it came from than what they were talking about.

"I just prefer it." Lukas lifted a shoulder, and returned back to the book. "Maybe I'm biased."

"Are you a muggleborn?" Arthur doubted it, Lukas could never be a muggleblood.

Lukas shook his head, not seemingly wanting to correct him.

"What then?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, no, of course it doesn't." Arthur tapped the book's cover. "I just, thought.. Thought that it would be something interesting to talk about."

"You need to work on your lying." Lukas flipped a page, seemingly a little annoyed.

"..You're right about that." Arthur let out a sigh. "My opinion on you won't change because of your blood status." He explained. "It's not like my blood isn't tainted with muggleblood."

"Yet you use the word _tainted_ to describe it."

Arthur clenched his fist, he was not sounding very believable, was he?

"Look." He un-clenched it, letting it be open and clear. "My grandfather fell for a mugglegirl, and was shunned by many because he "ruined" our family." Arthur explained. "But he stayed with her, and they had my father who married another half blood."

Lukas didn't look convinced in the slightest.

"We diverged from a line of full wizard families, who claimed to be greater than us because their muggle blood was much further back." He tried so hard to make it sound as important as it felt to him. "But our family was good, and almost every kid is a wizard. The muggleblood doesn't bother us, so it won't bother me if my friend has or doesn't have it."

Lukas squinted his eyes, even though his gaze didn't meet Arthur's it felt cold. "Why do you talk about it like it's some stupid heavy load?"

"..Because it is." Arthur said, sounding surprisingly determined. "People treat me like a muggleborn even though I'm not."

"The problem isn't that they treat you like a muggleborn, but how muggleborns are treated in general by many." Lukas sounded ..passionate.

"That doesn't make my issue any less real." Arthur replied. "But unlike muggleborns I know my way around wizard culture, and almost none of the muggle one, treating me like a muggle is wrong. While muggleborns are muggles with magic, until they learn the culture-"

Arthur stopped speaking when he saw Lukas' expression. He looked annoyed, confused and somewhat a bit worried. He didn't look at Arthur, but it felt like a sting even like that.

"Do you have a complex or something?" Lukas said, his voice wasn't loud nor that stern- It just kind of was.

"A complex?"

"You've been attacked for having muggle blood, and now you associate it with negativity, right?"

Arthur stared at Lukas, he had no idea what to say. He felt messy and complicated.

"Now you have to explain how you're above them because you can't accept them being right, how you are in fact, a half-blood."

Arthur breathed in, and let out a long sigh. "..You're.. How did you-"

Lukas just kind of shrugged. "It was just a hunch."

Arthur let his hand fall down his face, he was speechless.

Lukas at least seemed satisfied. Not smiling-satisfied, but satisfied.

"I.." Arthur spoke again. "I've been keeping quiet about it." he crossed his arms. "It's not like I would tell a muggle how I have issues with them because of my personal problems."

"Have you ever met a muggle?"

"Other than my grandma, no." He shook his head. "But she's nice."

"But not a muggle that doesn't know about magic?"

"Nope." Arthur shook his head. "I wouldn't mind though.. I guess it could be fun."

Lukas looked Arthur in the eye for a moment. "I guess you aren't that bad." He smiled a bit.

"What?" Arthur was un-sure if he was supposed to smile of relief or get angry.

"I'm a pure blood." Lukas said, it was quick, almost rushed, but it gave off a strong impact.

"..What?" Arthur furrowed his brows. Lukas did seem like a pure blood, he was an elegant person with some incredible magical ability. Though, his suspicions being right didn't help his saddening amount of stereotyping, which he probably had to start paying attention to.

"The Bondevik family is a Norwegian pure blood family." He explained.

"Wow." Arthur wasn't sure what to say, or if he even was supposed to. "Why do you care about Muggles so much then?"

"..Because they are people?" He looked at Arthur, with his eyes squinted.

"That came out wrong." Arthur replied quickly. "I meant- Since if it's not from personal experience and all- Of course they are people, that's not what I was questioning."

"My Neighbours are muggles."

"Ooh, yeah, that would explain it- NOT that it needs a big reason behind it-" Arthur scrambled on his words real bad.

"Try to calm down."

"I'll do that." Arthur placed his hands together, just to calm down. "I guess.." He started before properly relaxing. "If wizards weren't so scared of talking to muggles, we could get along a bit better."

"If everyone had a muggle friend." Lukas smiled a tad- he seemed to find it a bit funny.

After that they seemed to get along a bit better.

Halloween was knocking on the door, it was approaching and Lukas and Arthur started eating together, talk in the hallways, and sometimes even joke around. Lukas still carried his book around, but Arthur didn't mind.

"So, what even is that book?" Arthur asked, pointing at the blue book with golden décor. "Is it like a diary or something? Not that there's anything wrong with that or anything-"

"It's about Vikings."

"Vikings?"

"Vikings."

"What are those?"

Lukas looked at Arthur like he would have said who-shall-not-be-named's name. Which in Lukas' case was just his eyes being a bit more open.

"Uhm." Arthur was pretty sure Lukas was joking.

"They were mostly Scandinavian people who sailed the seas and raided, captured, and traded things."

"Oh! Like pirates."

Lukas didn't seem happy. "No- They were different." He showed a few pictures in the book of them. "They were more hygenic and-"

"You two seem to have started to get along." Stephan said as he walked over.

"Oh- Well, kind of." Arthur shrugged. He didn't want to force Lukas to a situation where he had to explain they weren't friends.

"Oh come on, it's obvious. I've never heard either of you sound so alive."

"Hah, wow, okay then." Arthur replied.

"But yeah, don't mind me. I'm just glad you two are friend." Stephan lifted them his thumb and walked back to his squadron.

They were silent for a moment.

Lukas just returned back to explaining Vikings, but Arthur couldn't believe he didn't talk about the friend thing. Like it wasn't something incredible that someone called them friends- Were they friends? Did Lukas ignoring it mean they were actual friends now?

Arthur wasn't entirely sure how to be sure, but at least he knew more about Vikings.

After class that day, Arthur entered the library as usual. Lukas was sitting there, already busy with his homework. Lukas was always there before Arthur, as even though they had started doing homework together now- Arthur had to go get his dark arts book from the common room, as it wasn't as safe to casually carry around as Lukas'.

"Hey!" Arthur greeted, somewhat cheerfully. He kept his voice down as they were in the library, but he wasn't hiding the fact he enjoyed Lukas' company.

"Hey." Lukas never sounded that ecstatic of seeing Arthur, but he always looked Arthur in the eye while greeting. Arthur had quickly understood that Lukas was all about the subtle details, he didn't need to loudly tell everyone that he was happy to see them. Though, Lukas did leave a lot to interpretation.

Arthur sat down next to him like always, they were still rather far away from each other. It wasn't as much from discomfort anymore, but more because they could fit their books better on the table that way. Arthur didn't know how close he was allowed anyways, it was safer to keep the distance. After everything he did to Lukas, he wanted to be as careful as he could- Especially considering all the earlier times they had come into physical contact. Arthur still felt awkward thinking about grapping Lukas' hand that one time.

"I think I saw Harry Potter in the hallway, today." he begun their usual chit chat, as he opened his book on potions.

"I think I've seen him a few times too." Lukas' answered with his usual tone of voice.

"Kind of weird to think that he is the same age as us."

"A little."

"I wonder if he is good in class." Arthur wondered as he truly began doing his homework.

Lukas shrugged "It could make sense."

A silence of them doing their own things settled upon the table. It wasn't a bad one, nice and casual. They had surprisingly little homework that day, which was rather nice. Though Arthur wasn't as excited about it as he thought he would, possibly because it mean less time with Lukas. He truly enjoyed the other kid's company, and knowing he left once they had discussed a bit and wouldn't be seen until morning was not fun.

They finished their homework, with two such smart kids working together it was obvious it wouldn't take that long.

"So, about that potion." Arthur said, as he closed his magic history book. "Did you figure out where we could make it?"

Lukas was silent, and then he turned his head away: "Kind of."

"Wha- Really? What do you mean?" Arthur was actually rather surprised Lukas had found a place.

Lukas didn't seem that at ease talking about the subject: "I'll explain later."

"Oh- That's fine." Arthur decided it would be for the best to just let Lukas talk once he was okay with it.

Lukas didn't really reply to him, there wasn't much of a need to.

"I was looking back on the ingredients, just to make sure it could be done an-"

"So this is where you've been all month!" Andrew spoke from behind Arthur's chair. It wasn't exactly a sudden fright inducing surprise, but it did make Arthur jolt a bit.

"What the-" Arthur let out before he could properly regain his graps of the situation. "Oh." He looked Andrew in his horrible eyes of pride and brotherly love that sometimes appeared as un-healthy banter between the two as they both lacked the ability to properly communicate their feelings like human beings.

"Is this your friend?" Andrew looked at Lukas. Lukas seemed to try to ignore him, he seemed a bit more shooked than Arthur.

"It's none of your business, Andrew." Arthur groaned with distaste. "Please leave us alone."

Andrew tilted his head and furrowed his brows, he seemed a bit disappointed. "I just wanted to talk to my little brother, I haven't seen you around and I wanted to know what you've been up to."

"Just school, like a normal person." Arthur answered. "Isn't it obvious that there's nothing to be worried of?"

"Well." Andrew changed his position to something a bit more stiff, it was a bit intimidating because of the size difference. Though, it didn't seem to be an intentional effect. "I hadn't seen you in a while, but okay. I saw you now, so I know now." He looked away, he felt a little tense.

"Good." Arthur replied sharply. "You can go away then."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Andrew turned around and went away, surprisingly quickly.

Arthur took a moment to realize that his brother actually listened to him and left.

"Sorry Lukas, my brother can be pretty annoying." Arthur turned back to face the table. Lukas seemed to be reading about Vikings again, a little tense but otherwise normal.

"It's fine." Lukas replied, there wasn't much difference from the usual tone. Though, it did feel a bit off. Arthur sadly lacked the ability to even guess what the difference was.

Arthur tapped the table with his fingers a bit, he felt a rather jumbled.

"What were you trying to say before he came?" Lukas asked, he still didn't make eye contact. That must have been one of the differences.

"Oh-" Arthur stopped tapping for a moment. "I'm not sure, something about the potion."

They were silent for a moment, as Arthur pondered what he was about to say before his brother cut them off.

At first he just tried to force the memory out, but it didn't seem to work. After a quick glance at Lukas' book though, he remembered.

The book had a page about what Vikings and Viking village people ate, or something along the lines of that. The word "ingrediants" slammed itself into Arthur's face, and he finally figure it out.

"Right- Ingrediants. That was what I was going to talk about."

"Oh."

"I just wanted to point out that I might not be able to gather all the ingredients we need, so if you can get any it would be good."

"Yeah, okay." Lukas shrugged again.

They talked a bit longer about this and that. Andrew's visit didn't seem to come up much during it, and Arthur didn't give it much thought at that moment. He did notice that his behaviour was far from the normal boastful stupidity. Maybe Owen had finally given Andrew a good old talk, for the 10 time that year.

It was about an hour in total they sat in the library, spending time together as maybe-friends. There was still the question in Arthur's mind if Lukas considered him a friend. He wondered if he would ever truly know, it's not like most people announce "We're friends now" just like that.

Lukas got up from his chair after their session of possible-friendship. Arthur knew he would leave, it didn't change the fact that he wouldn't have minded spending time with him a bit more. It was a bit of a pathetic thought, but he had never had a friend like Lukas. He had always been with his family, never truly connecting with a stranger.

Lukas took a step to leave, but not another- instead, he turned around to face Arthur.

Arthur looked up at him from his chair.

"Do you want to come along?"

"What? Where?" Arthur asked, not with absolute confusion, but more hidden curiosity with an overtone of surprise.

"The place we can make the potion in." Lukas answered, but seemed to not find his answer good enough, and so he continued: "The place I always go to instead of the common room."

Arthur couldn't deny the fact that hearing those words from Lukas made him incredibly excited.


	11. Together towards the objective

Lukas and Arthur walked their way over to the basement, where the Slytherin common room was. There was no-one there, and the dark lit hallway felt a little eerie. Lukas was leading the way, and walked a bit ahead of Arthur. He seemed to know his way wherever he was heading quite well, not that Arthur was surprised. As far as he knew, Lukas had been going to the same place all year.

Lukas then stopped, right in front of a wall- which he stared at rather intently.

Arthur had seen people staring at walls quite often, it was kind of a common wizard activity. There was a trend of hidden entrances in walls, and most wizards would at least once in their life look at a wall before processing to opening it. Arthur could only imagen that Muggles who needed a hole in a wall to progress through it, might have found it strange. Arthur didn't find it strange, he was a cool wizard.

Lukas grabbed his wand, and placed it on one of the bricks. He tapped it on it a few times, and the brick had a small hole appear into it. It looked a bit like a key hole.

Arthur examined the situation curiously, it seemed that Lukas did in fact have a secret hideout. It was both a surprise, but also confirmed suspicions.

Lukas took a piece of paper from his pocket, it had a very small badly painted and shaded key coloured onto it. It looked shabby, but apparently Lukas was going to use it.

To put it simply- Lukas pushed the piece of paper into the hole. Somehow that was good enough, and the wall opened like a door. Well to be blunt, it wasn't as much the wall opening- As a small part of it. Kind of like a certain amount of the bricks just decided "I want to be a door now."

Lukas walked in, giving Arthur a signal to follow along.

Arthur did as advised, and stepped into the dark room. The door closed behind him quickly, and they were left into absolute pure black darkness. "Uh-" Arthur let out, but before he could form a proper sentence- Lukas seemed to answer his prayers.

Arthur heard Lukas perform a spell of some kind, and the room's few lanterns were lit. There were about four of them, all in different sizes, colours, and levels of oldness. They were just enough to make the room feel less like a horrible dark room of horror, and more like an almost comfortable room in a cellar.

He took a few steps from where the door was at before. He found himself stepping on a very old welcome rug. It simply said "Enjoy your stay!" it was definitely timeworn.

The rest of the room had the same tone, from the beanie bags to the clipboard and posters on the wall. It seemed like students had brought stuff into the room all through the years, and it now resembled a messy man cave or something along the lines of that.

In the middle of the room, there was a very low table, it seemed someone sawed it's legs to fit the beanie bags better. Honestly speaking, Arthur found the room kind of inviting the more he examined it.

Lukas had walked to a taller closet in the corner, letting Arthur look around freely.

"What is this place?" Arthur said, he couldn't hide the wonder in his words.

"It's called 'The Cooperation Chamber.'" Lukas explained.

Arthur walked over to the small table. "And what does that mean, exactly?"

Lukas seemed a bit ungrateful of Arthur's wording, but didn't comment on it. "I don't really know how to explain it."

Arthur noticed a lot of books on the table, that didn't seem as dusty as other things in the room. They were clearly Lukas', Arthur wasn't even surprised he bought so many books with him. There was also a small bookshelf against the wall. Arthur was rather fascinated s of what books he would find there.

There was something else against one of the walls as well, it was a very small painting of a hallway with a single door. It wasn't painted that well, but it was recognisable enough.

Lukas took something from the closet, and turned to look at Arthur. He seemed to notice where Arthur's interest was focused on.

"It's just a room." Lukas said, simple as that. "That's pretty much it."

"Well, it's quite nice for an old dusty room." Arthur nodded, he tried to sound normal but he sounded far too much like he was full of interest.

"Yeah." Lukas walked over to one of the bean bags, and sat down. Arthur had never seen anyone sit so elegantly on a bean bag.

"Do you know what's up with the painting?" Arthur asked, looking around for which of the old bean bags was the least dusty- He couldn't sit on dust, could he?

"Oh." Lukas looked at this legs for a moment. "It's kind of.." His fingers intertwined, as he looked for words. "The room owner's spot."

"The room owner is a painting?"

Lukas nodded. "His name is the key man."

Arthur looked at Lukas, and then moved his focus quickly towards the painting. "I've talked to him."

Lukas seemed interested in that story.

"I accidently stumbled upon him in the hallway, and uh.." Arthur sat on the beanie bag with as little dust as possible. "Well I sort of asked him where you slept.." Arthur explained, regretting the decision right away.

Lukas seemed to be speechless.

Arthur nervously fiddled with his robe. "I know- It, it sounds really bad. It was really bad." He tried to explain himself. "I am so sorry."

Lukas looked Arthur in the eyes for a moment, and then away. "It's fine."

Arthur awkwardly looked at his hands. "I don't think it really is fine."

"I think it is." Lukas leant back on the chair. "We all do senseless things."

Arthur sighed, he felt a crushing sense of embarrassment bleed through him, like a fountain of really bad melted chocolate ice cream. "I'm.. Glad you can forgive it at least."

Lukas shrugged.

Arthur leant forwards on the bean bag. "Uh, anyways.. We'll make the potion here?"

"Where else?"

Arthur couldn't help but to agree.

A bit later, after talking about less important things, Arthur asked something worth listening. "So this is where you've been at all this time, huh?"

Lukas nodded. "Yeah."

"Why?" Arthur asked, locking his eyes with Lukas'.

Lukas looked at him for a moment, clearly surprised by his bluntness. "I prefer being alone." He answered, which in turn surprised Arthur.

"You've just been sitting around in a dusty dim room all alone?"

Lukas nodded, he looked a bit annoyed by the wording, which made it sound like a bad idea. "It really isn't that bad."

"I just couldn't imagen how lonely it would be." Arthur said, he was honestly surprised of how own blunt way of speaking. He passed it as being rather tired, and the rooms lack of light. "I can't relax without hearing other people around."

"Everybody is different." Lukas shrugged it off. "I prefer silence."

"That's kinda cool." Arthur smiled a little.

Lukas looked relieved on some level, he hugged his legs, and looked at the books he had left on the table.

Arthur turned to look at the closet in the corner. "Did you take something from there?"

Lukas blinked, but seemed to understand quickly after. "Yeah- I did." He pointed at a small cauldron he had dragged out of it. "There's one that we can use without having to go to potion class empty handed."

"Oh- That makes sense." Arthur agreed.

Lukas looked at his feet.

Arthur turned to look at the table, it had mostly regular books, papyrus, and a few scrolls. The only thing that truly stood out was the white paper that peeked slightly from under one of the book piles.

After giving it a bit of thought, Arthur realized it was muggle paper. He tried to carefully read what was written in blue on the paper. He did quickly see a badly drawn stick figure of a person wearing a tie, but other than that the letters were hard to make sense of. He leaned a bit closer, which could be seen as suspicious but Lukas seemed to be deep in thought. Then he realized the reason he didn't understand, was because it wasn't in English. It must have been whatever people speak in Denmark.

Arthur didn't know much about countries outside of the Great Britain.

"Is that letter from your neighbour?" Arthur decided to ask, as he leant back.

Lukas turned to look at Arthur, it seemed that they were close enough to talk about stuff a bit more. "Yeah." He nodded, he didn't seem too taken back.

"They sure write you a lot."

"He does." Lukas smiled a bit, something about the subject seemed to be enjoyable.

"You must be close." Arthur returned a smile as well, mostly to be polite.

Lukas moved a hair strand from his face. "He is my best friend."

Arthur kept the smile up, he did feel a bit confused though. Lukas seemed like a layered hard to read book, but it was nice seeing him opening up, even if slowly. To think a pureblood had a muggle best friend. "I'm glad you're so close."

Lukas nodded, he was somewhat avoiding eye contact. He seemed a little embarrassed. Lukas reached out to grab one of the letters on the table, and looked at it.

"Does he know you're a wizard?"

Lukas's fingers around the letter seemed to tighten the hold. "No."

"..How does he send the letters, then?"

"He gives them to my mom, and she sends them on an owl." Lukas explained.

"And he doesn't question it?"

"He questions it." Lukas awkwardly placed the letter back on the table, it seemed like he was grasping at straws for anything to do while talking. "He said he understands that I can't tell everything to him."

"Sounds rough." Arthur said. He felt a bit bothered for asking so many questions, if someone could be Lukas' best friend without knowing everything, he should be able to be a friend without having to know everything either. That wasn't going to stop though.

"It is." Lukas said, it was surprisingly straight forward. He seemed to appreciate Arthur's gesture.

"I've never had wizards friends." Lukas kept talking, it was surprising how he was opening up. "With muggles none of them would be suspicious of if I was doing dark arts."

"I guess wizard friends would know sides of you muggles never would, huh?"

"Yeah."

Arthur leant on the table. He felt like he understood what Lukas was saying. If someone had always lived with only muggles around him, it would possibly be a bit weird to suddenly have his wizard side exposed to all.

"I've never had wizard friends either." Arthur kept the confession session going. They were both tired, which seemed to help out in being a bit more open.

Lukas lifted an eyebrow, he didn't seem to really believe him.

"I have thre- four brothers, and live in a really isolated spot." Arthur explained. "I've met a lot of adult wizards and muggles who visit my dad for his services, but no-one my age really visits."

"Ah." Lukas seemed to understand. "I'm the only child."

"Wow." Arthur let out. "I can't even imagen that."

Lukas smiled a bit, it wasn't exactly happy, but amused.

They spent the whole evening in the room, talking and actually having fun.

Arthur told Lukas stories of all sorts of stupid things he and his brothers had done, and Lukas told him about Vikings.

He actually stated to kind of be interested in them, Lukas was good at selling Vikings as awesome people.

Only after Arthur realized to look at his wrist watch, he realized they had been there past 12 at night. They decided to return to the common room together.

With Lukas' experience, they were quickly in the common room without anyone noticing. He seemed to have perfected sneaking from The Cooperation Chamber to the common room.

They said good night to each other, and entered their respective bedrooms. Honestly when Arthur laid down that night, he felt refreshed and incredibly cheerful. Lukas had indirectly finally answered Arthur about their friendship, and showed him a very nice hideout.

He had made a friend, and that was cool.

The next morning he felt a bit worn-out, staying late seemed to affect him. That wasn't going to stop him though, he got up and did his usual morning routine.

He met Lukas in the common room, on his sofa. They had made it a meeting place not too long ago, as it was the only place you could count Arthur would appear to often.

They headed to the great hall, ate their breakfast, and went to wait for class to start.

"I hope they have pumpkin pie." Arthur overheard Mike.

Stephan rolled his eyes in the least rude way possible. "Of course they are going to have Pumpkin pie, what's a Halloween feast without them?"

Mike shrugged "Wizards might have some weird ban on pumpkins or something."

"I know Halloween is about scaring people, but that's too much." Stephan replied. His squad giggled together, it was a very nice sight to see.

Arthur couldn't help but to compare Stephan's and Vlad's groups again, the whole feeling of each was so different. Vlad's was so forced and felt lonely, while Stephan's was happy and equal.

"It's Halloween already?" Lukas asked.

Arthur turned to look at his friend, who was standing next to him. "Yeah, seems so." He replied.

"No wonder it smells like pumpkins." Lukas looked around the hallway, they were a bit away from the main squad.

"Oh- That what it was." Arthur looked like he only realized it now. "I wasn't sure what the smell was."

Lukas didn't really reply, luckily it didn't bother Arthur.

"My brothers often talk about how tasty the Halloween feast is." Arthur kept chit-chatting, Lukas not reacting that much wasn't something that discouraged him anymore.

"There's a Halloween feast?"

"No-one told you?" Arthur was left baffled by his question.

"Who would?"

Ouch, Arthur thought. "Ah- Right." He adjusted his position a bit. "It's this annual feast thing in the great hall, nothing more than that really."

"I guess some people get really into Halloween." Lukas looked up at Arthur, as if to ask him if he enjoyed the celebration.

Arthur looked back, but then shifted his eyes away. "Well, I do enjoy it." He nodded. "I've never been trick or treating, though."

"Mat- My neighbour dragged me trick or treating once." Lukas turned away as well. "It was silly, but not too bad."

"That's really nice." Arthur smiled slightly. "I've only celebrated by visiting my mom's family."

Lukas' eyes widened a bit. "Your mom's family?"

"..Ah." Arthur didn't look that bothered by it, but it did sound a bit sad compared to his usual tone. "She and my mom broke up, and my mom married a muggle."

"Oh."

"It's not that big of deal." Arthur shrugged. "I was 1 or 2 at the time, so it's not like I remember it that well."

Lukas seemed to struggle with finding any words that he could possibly say, but he seemed to want to showcase that he supports him. Arthur didn't really care, his mom leaving wasn't a big deal.

Nope, not a big deal.

The school day was strangely normal for such a spooky day. Stephan's group kept making puns about Halloween related things, and Arthur had forgotten to do his defence against dark arts homework. It baffled him that he could possibly miss doing that, especially when Lukas remembered it.

They entered the great hall to celebrate the Halloween feast, both looking like peculiar loners. That seemed to be their general aesthetic wherever they went to.

They sat by the Slytherin table. It was somewhat funny looking, as it had been made longer than the other tables so all of the Slytherins could sit at it at once. It wasn't a big change, but it was notable for Arthur. He doubted the people on the other side of the room (like the gryffindors) would even notice.

Lukas and Arthur begun eating, they didn't chat much. Stephan and his squad were walking a lot of weird jokes, and comparing wizard and muggle Halloweens. A few other Slytherins challenged their Slytheriness, once they heard of the muggleborn Slytherins that Stephan's squad mostly consisted of.

It was certainly interesting entertainment, though Lukas seemed to find it annoying. He seemed to have a deep love towards muggles.

"I have better grades than you." Stephan said to one of the somewhat bothersome other first year Slytherins. He sounds calm, with a tint of sternness. It was admirable how smartly he was dealing with the whole situation.

"Grades mean nothing once you leave school."

"Nor does my blood status once people like you come to your senses."

"Senses? You do realize wizard bloodlines are rare for a reason?"

"Rarity doesn't always mean quality."

Arthur and Lukas silently listened the whole time, Lukas seemed to get rather annoyed by certain word choices the other made. They did enjoy the food, though- Which was pleasant.

"You don't understand what you're saying!"

"I think I understand all of this better than you." Stephan said with a much stronger distaste than before.

"You're not even a real Slyther-"

The door slammed open, and Arthur's Defence against Dark arts teacher stumbled in. It was Quirinus Quirrell, and he looked like he had seen a ghost. It was enough to shut the whole Pureblood argument down.

Which to be honest wasn't a very good comparison as there were ghosts flying around in the great hall at that specific moment.

Quirrel rushed to the small stage the teachers ate. He said something quite loudly to Dumbledore, though Arthur didn't exactly hear what.

Luckily Stephan had connections, and quickly got the information carried to him through whispers within the student body.

"There's a troll in the dungeon?"

"How would a troll get into hogwarts?!"

Arthur looked at Lukas, he was un-sure of what to think. There was a hint of bafflement and slight spooks in both of their eyes. Though, fear was not included in the range of emotions they were feeling.

People were chatting loudly, a slight hysteria had creeped up upon the feast.

Dumbledore shot a loud beam from his wand, but one wasn't enough to shut down the chatter. After a few more tries, he finally got everyone to quiet down- Giving him the chance to talk.

He gave an order with a surprisingly stern yet clam voice. The sound of wisdom was strong in each word he spoke, even when what he was saying wasn't that un-expected. He simply told the prefects to lead each house to their common rooms, where the meals would be eaten.

The Slytherin table got up in a surprisingly orderly fashion, and was quickly being led out by a prefect.

Some students whispered about why they were going to the dungeon if the troll was there, but no-one was really sure.

Arthur and Lukas were in the very back of the group, they had returned to casual chit chat now that blood status stopped being the topic of discussion.

"I did read once of a troll who tried to find humans because it found screaming nice."

"That's weird." Lukas didn't seem that bothered anymore.

"Yeah, weird is probably the best word for it."

Lukas nodded, and the conversation paused for a moment. "Hm."

"Hm?"

"The potion's main ingredient is a troll whisker, right?"

"Now that you mention it.." Arthur realized at that moment, that they were being leaded away from an important ingredient.

"If we got the troll hair now, we could easily start doing the potion before Christmas." Lukas mused.

"We can't just run off a grab a whisker, though." Arthur added. "Would be nice if we could, though.."

Lukas bit his lip, he seemed focused. "We could.." His voice trailed off before he could finish.

"Could what?"

Lukas looked away for a moment, but then turned his gaze to focus on Arthur. "If we're sneaky, we can see what happens to the troll. It's possible we can take a hair from it once the teachers take away the threat."

"Sounds pretty risky."

"Yeah, it is."

Arthur looked around them for a moment. "You know, I think we should do it."

"Are you sure?" Lukas seemed to doubt his idea more than Arthur.

"No, but, I want to give it a try." Arthur explained. "If we get caught then we'll just come up with an excuse."

"You mean I'll come up with an excuse?"

Arthur looked a little embarrassed, but also humored. "Well if I do, they'll realize it's an excuse pretty quick."

Lukas nodded.

Arthur scanned where would be the best spot to drop off the group's trail.

Once the moment arrived, the both of them quickly stayed behind at a corner. It took a bit longer than they expected, but it was a successful escape.

They walked through the basement, un-sure of where the troll really was. Not to mention the teachers.

Luckily, their questions were answered with a loud scream, followed by many other loud noises. They quickly rushed towards the direction of the noise, but stayed behind a corner. They didn't have to exactly see what was going on, if they could hear.

It seemed that the two had arrived in the middle of a lecture. Apparently students had engaged the Troll, it was kind of fun to think they weren't the only ones sneaking around.

"We need to get it out of here." McGonagall's voice echoed through the area.

"Quirinus looks more traumatized than the troublemakers." Snape's voice spoke as well.

"A R-Real troll! In Hogwarts! I thou- thought this school was safe!" He squeked to Snape.

"These things happen." Snape replied to him, it was a bit harsh.

With a flash of a wand, Arthur and Lukas assumed something was done to the troll. Lukas pointed out it was the color for Wingardium Leviosa.

They heard footsteps as well. Arthur could hear his heart beat, as it beat faster and faster with each closing footstep. He looked at Lukas quickly, asking what they should do.

Lukas seemed completely and utterly frozen, leaving Arthur to do something.

He quickly scanned the area, and located a conveniently placed door. He grabbed Lukas' arm, which seemed to shake this kid out of whatever issue he was having. They both went behind the door as quietly as they could, and soon found themselves in the male bathroom of the dungeons.

The footsteps approached far too close to comfort, but also started to slowly quiet down. Whoever walked past them had gone past already.

Lukas was breathing rather heavily, and leaning on the wall. It seemed that he didn't handle pressure that well.

Arthur leaned on the door, listening for more teachers. Once the two of the other teachers had clearly passed them, would Arthur finally even dare to open his mouth.

"Well, at least we found the troll." He celebrated with a nervous smile.

Lukas nodded, sliding down the wall to sit. The boy had looked less like a uneasy mess, but it didn't seem to affect him _too_ bad.

"You okay?" Arthur asked, taking a step closer to him.

Lukas lifted his hand to signal him to stop. He breathed a bit more, and leant back. He looked like he was getting a bit better. "Yeah." He said in a half whisper.

"If you say so." Arthur tossed the subject aside, and walked to the door again. "Where do you think they will take the troll?"

"Outside." Lukas shrugged. "Probaply the closet big door they can find."

"I think I know which one." Arthur said. "We can go check whenever you want."

Lukas sighed, he seemed a little fustrated.

After a moment of silence, he got up from the floor. Once Lukas had adjusted his robe into looking a bit more orderly, he gave Arthur a nod.

The two boys were off again.

They arrived to the door Arthur spoke off, and Arthur leaned against it. Outside was quiet, no-one was talking nor walking close by.

He quietly opened the massive door like a strong 11 year old, and check the area. No-one was present other than them. Further in the distance, McGonagall seemed to be talking to a very hairy tall man.

Arthur recognized the man as the same hairy tall man who lead them to the boats at the start of the year. It seemed that the two were planning on dropping the troll on a wooden cart, and take it who knows where.

Lukas pointed for them to go hide, so that when McGonagall left the area she wouldn't see them by the door. Arthur agreed to the plan and the speeded their way to a good hiding spot. They spied on the situation a bit more, and concluded that the tall hairy man was going to head to the forbidden forest to drop the troll off, and McGonagall was walking over.

The two hid as quietly as they could, and luckily McGonagall didn't notice them.

They hurried to the edge of the forbidden forest, where the hairy man was still visible from. He pulling the cart like it didn't weigh anything. Arthur wasn't sure if he was just a very strong gigantic man or if there was a spell on the cast, but he didn't really have time to ponder about that.

Arthur almost stepped into the forest, but Lukas grapped his shoulder. Arthur turned to look at his blue eyed friend.

"Can we really go in there?"

"We'll just quickly run behind the cart and grap the whisker, and run back. If we hurry we don't even have to go that deep."

Lukas bit his lip, and then nodded. Arthur took the first step to enter the forest. They would have to rely on the gigantic man's lantern for light, and make sure they could return to the field before it got too dark to see.

They sprinted quietly and catched up to the cart, the gigantic man didn't seem to notice them because of the noise the cart was making. There were enough trees to hide behind of, as well.

Arthur was about 4 meters from the wooden cart, while Lukas stood a bit further. They were close enough to see each other.

Arthur gave a quick glance towards the slowly escaping line between the forest and the field, they had to do it now or suffer getting a bit too deep into the forest.

He gave Lukas the signal that he was going to try to grab a whisker now, and Lukas gave him an un-sure nod.

Arthur took a few stronger steps from behind the tree, before he went for a quiet as possible sprint to a tree only a meter away from the cart.

To his dismay, the cart kept going when he hid. He would never catch up to the cart by hiding, he had to either run behind and be heard and seen by the gigantic man- Or do something else.

Suddenly Lukas threw a rock at the man.

Arthur (quietly) slammed against the tree in surprise.

The man turned around and looked to all directions. "Anybody there?" He asked, his voice was quite annoyed.

Arthur held his breath, but the lantern's light showed that the gigantic man had turned back around.

Lukas' face behind one of the trees. Arthur shot him an expression, and mouthed "What was that?!" In any other situation he would try to be a bit more polite, but for god's sake! They are in the forbidden forest with a giant man trying to be stealthy and Lukas throws a rock at him!"

Lukas seemed to mouth something too, Arthur wasn't really sure what. "Bus teeth?"

He figured. He gave Lukas an expression of not understanding.

Lukas' palm met his face in a very frustrated manner. At this rate, Arthur would have to catch up to the cart again.

Arthur tried to gather up their next plan of movement, at least they had to run a bit closer to get to the light of the lantern. The forest was already terrifying, but being stuck there without light was annoying.

Arthur sprinted behind and another tre- Oh no, he didn't. He was hit in the back of the head with a small rock. He held back his scream, but he did jump quite much. Somehow he did get behind a tree in time, though.

The gigantic man had heard the thud and turned around again, stopping his wooden cart and making the light hit the trees they hid behind of in a very menacing angle.

"I'm serious here, don't go thinkin' you can fool around with me!" He took a few steps towards them. Arthur took steps to move around the tree, so when the Gigantic man passed him- He wouldn't see him.

The gigant man did in fact pass him, and was slowly approaching where Lukas was hidden. Arthur felt a sting in his chest when realized that Lukas would probably be frozen again, he had to distract the man in some way. He franticly looked around, and he finally could focus his eyes on a small rock at his feet. He grabbed it, and aimed.

The sound a grown-man yelping told Arthur that he had landed a perfect shot. Too bad he was coming towards Arthur now.

Arthur didn't have much time to think it through. Before he knew it, he was running in a dark forest far away from the lantern's light.

"What the-" He heard the man let out, before he heard his large footsteps following him. Arthur was pretty sure he was covered in the darkness, and it seemed that the man wasn't that quick in the environment. The amount of trees that came in his way was perfect for Arthur to just run past off. This lack-of-a-plan turned surprisingly good for him.

He didn't really see in front of him that well, which lead to a few times he stumbled over. Arthur had a good enough lead for it not affecting him too much.

Then he fell over because of a tree route, right onto his face. His arms brushed in front of him against the ground in a very painful manner, and his knee seemed to hit a rock.

Everything was dark for a moment, Arthur wasn't sure for how long- but the main question was if he was found by the gigantic man.

To his surprise, the man was no-where to be seen, and Lukas was poked his head.

"Are you okay?" He whispered to him, holding a wand which seemed to be lit with Lumos.

"What the-" He tried to get up but his hands and leg hurted surprisingly much.

"Can you get up?"

"Yeah- Probably." He painfully sat up, it wasn't too bad. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure what happened to you," Lukas explained, "But I got the whiskers."

"You did?!" Arthur turned to face Lukas, who was holding two very gross hairs in his non-wand hand. "How?!"

"When he chased you, I got the chance to grab them."

"Of course- Yeah that makes sense." Arthur was quite relieved by the news.

"I think he heard me walking by the cart, and turned back." Lukas explained. "He didn't notice anything suspicious after that, and proceeded with taking the troll somewhere."

Arthur nodded, and stood up in a way that could be compared to baby deer. Lukas got up as well, as he had sat down next to him.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Close enough." Arthur smirked a bit. "Let's head back."

Lukas gave him a nod, and they returned to the castle.


	12. Daily routine

Arthur walked out of the hospital wing, and greeted Lukas who was waiting outside. "Sorry that you had to wait." He lifted his hand as a hello.

Lukas tilted his head to the side a bit, seemingly dismissing the need for an apology. "They couldn't fix your hand?"

Arthur looked at his lifted hand, which had his brother's hand print burnt onto it. "Oh- yeah, they couldn't."

"Where did come from?" Lukas asked, as they started walking to The Cooperation Chamber.

"Ah- I forgot you didn't know." Arthur smiled through his sigh. "My brother grabbed my hand when I was using Ostendente."

"Magic burn, huh?"

"Pretty much." Arthur examined his hand a bit. "Madam Pomfrey said that it's permanent."

"Huh?"

"Every time I hurt this arm, it'll appear." Arthur explained. "After that it'll slowly fade again."

"You're going to have to get used to it then?"

"Yeah." Arthur relaxed the hand. "I slightly sprained my hand out there, so it's probably not going to disappear anytime soon."

"Does it hurt?"

"Nah, I'm fine." Arthur assured. "She healed rest all the other parts, but I guess she isn't sure how the hand would react to anything; so she left it un-touched for now."

"All right."

"Your lie worked too, she didn't suspect a thing." Arthur smiled a bit, when they finally arrived to the dungeon.

"I'm glad she could believe you being scared of trolls and falling over from panic."

"..It's not a hard sell." Arthur smirked a bit. If anyone other than Lukas would have said that, Arthur would have gotten quite angry.

Lukas opened the Chamber's magical door of bricks, and they both entered the room.

Arthur sat on the beanbag he had claimed as his. Lukas did the same, but far more elegant.

Arthur placed his books on the already full table "Homework?"

"Homework." Lukas nodded, and picked his book of Defence against dark arts. Arthur felt like he was hinting Arthur about how he probably really should make sure to do everything. Arthur was a bit annoyed by this, but he had to admit that he somewhat possibly deep in the depths of his mind subconsciously might have appreciated it.

One the homework was complete, Arthur leant bag in the bag. Finishing Homework had started to become one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment, if you didn't count every time he had done illegal things and didn't get caught.

"So.." He started, and Lukas turned to look at him. "We've got the Trolls whisker, a cauldron, a place to make it."

"Yeah something like that." Lukas nodded.

"What else do we need?"

Lukas thought for a moment: "The rest of the ingredients, and how to give it to Vlad." He answered.

"Oh right- How would we even give it to him?" Arthur jumped up from laying. "We can't just march up to him and ask him to drink from a cup."

"We don't even have a cup.." Lukas squinted his eyes a bit.

"I'll add it to the list for Christmas." Arthur sighed.

"Even a drop of the potion should be enough for the effect though, if we can get it in his drink it should be enough."

"Good point."

"What are you two scheming?" A very intrigued calm voice spoke from the wall.

Arthur jumped in the spot, while Lukas only slightly flinched.

"Oh, did I scare you?" The calming yet sinisterly happy voice spoke.

Arthur looked at the wall, where the painting of the hallway hanged. Instead of it being empty, this time it held a familiar face. It was the key man.

"Oh- Hi-" Arthur fought to regain his posture. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I'm everywhere." He smiled.

Lukas was just looking at the exchange from the side; he seemed to have calmed down far quicker than Arthur.

"Well- Ein't that nice." Arthur was quickly calming down from the surprise.

"It is." He nodded. "I see Lukas let you in."

Lukas nodded.

"I expected as much." The key man looked proud. "It wouldn't be a Cooperation chamber with only one inhabitant."

"This is your room, right?" Arthur inquired.

The key man seemed pleased: "Yes, in fact! I am this room's owner."

"How does that work exactly?" Arthur tilted his head, a little confused. Paintings didn't usually own anything physical.

"I am the key man, the master of whereabouts." He answered without really answering. "If there's a door, I know what's behind it."

"That doesn't really make you an owner."

"Excellent point!" He clapped his hand together once, somehow he still gave off an elegant knowledgeable feeling. "You see, as much as I like to flaunt my success.. It's not like I really know what's behind every door."

"That's not very surprising." Arthur stated, the key man looked amused by his reply.

"So now that I am kept from opening them myself, I am forced to use- Help students out for a fee." He pulled a piece of string with a key attached to it from under his shirt. "Free access to an un-attainable room, for a painting."

"A painting?"

"I wish to move around." He spun a little in his boarders. "The student has to bring me along with them to the room, to put it more simply."

"Did Lukas paint your painting then?"

The key man shook his head. "No, this is a far older painting."

"Then why does Lukas get to enter here?" Arthur furrowed his brows.

"I learnt about his little habits to dabble with the more experimental sides of magic." The key man smiled, he looked calmer than before. It was almost a terrifyingly calm expression. "I want to help him achieve his goals."

Lukas was hugging his legs.

"Consider me a sponsor to a good cause!" He celebrated a bit.

"And the cause is?"

"I wish to move around." The key man answered in the most answerful way possible, and then took his leave.

Arthur tried to ask him to explain, but the Key man ignored him.

"Creepy, huh?" Lukas asked afterwards.

"Very much so." Arthur replied.

Rest of their week went rather peacefully. They had quite a lot of school work, and now and then they would talk about their plans. Their usual routine had turned into going to the secret room after staying in the library. Lukas had explained that the dungeons have too many people aimlessly roaming around right after class, so going there an hour or so after makes them less likely to get caught.

Arthur didn't forget his defence against dark arts homework even once, but Francis did. Arthur still disliked Francis.

"Why do you dislike him?" Lukas asked him once after class.

"I just do?! He has a horrible smug face and stupid hair."

"Are you jealous?"

"Of course not! Why would I be jealous of someone I don't even know."

"Have you two ever talked?"

"No"

".. Okay."

Lukas didn't press the matter further after that.

Arthur hadn't followed Vlad around for a long time either, mostly because all his time was spent doing silly things with Lukas.

The fact came to mind when the first Quidditch match of the year was held, and Vlad made it clear that he found it amazing.

It was jarring to see someone who cursed another student being so genuinely happy and excited to watch people fly around on brooms. It was strange to see that smug and bored face look like a kid in a candy store.

Arthur and Lukas weren't that interested in Quidditch, though. Lukas did comment that his neighbour would really like it, and it was clear to Arthur that Lukas didn't say it as a fun fact.

Later that month they were walking around, talking about the Whisker Whiskey.

"We would have to be close enough to hear what he says once he digests it." Arthur pointed out.

"The Gryffindor is really far from the Slytherin one." Lukas pointed out. "I don't think we can easily do that."

"Maybe what he says will become a rumour or something?" Arthur tried to sound hopeful.

"Who knows?" Lukas didn't seem to consider it a possibility.

They were walking to their man cave from the library.

"Well.. There could be a hearing spell?" Arthur added into the idea pile.

Lukas shrugged: "We can check.

"You really casted that right on your first try?" Stephan's voice cut through their conversation only a bit further away. The two kept walking, but their attention had changed to the two people they would have to walk past of.

"I did." Vlad nodded. "I have my whole class to prove it."

"Wow, show off." Stephan laughed, the insult seemed to be sarcastic. "Well you must be pleased to hear that I did it perfectly as well."

"I doubt that surprised anyone." Vlad mused. "You're way too good with all this stuff."

"Well unlike you I have the book smarts too." Stephan proudly stated, the whole exchange seemed to be friendly. It lacked any actual hostility.

Vlad waved his hand around a bit "Yeah, yeah, you got it all. I'm fine with just being able to do magic."

It was strange seeing Vlad genuinely having fun, being relaxed and in an environment he enjoyed. He didn't seem to even notice Arthur and Lukas walk by.

"So Stephan and Vlad are friends?" Arthur asked when they arrived to The Cooperation Chamber.

"Seems like it." Lukas answered while grabbing Papyrus from the closet, he had gotten another letter from his neighbour and seemed to be planning on replying to it.

"I wonder if we can use that in some way.." Arthur thought, he felt a bit bothered by having that as his first thought on the subject. "If we ask Stephan to give the drink to Vlad as a prank or something?"

Lukas shrugged "It could work." He sat down next to him. Lukas had pushed the Beanbag a bit further, to make sure he could get a balanced way to sit.

"He looked really happy.." Arthur thought out loud.

"Hm?" Lukas started writing, it was a bit strange watching how easily he wrote in another language. Arthur had to give credit, being able to speak multiple languages seemed fun.

"Usually he has this.. Bothered face? Like he is annoyed." Arthur explained. "But he looked so relaxed."

"Maybe he and Stephan are close." Lukas added, he didn't seem to focused on the conversation.

"What language are you writing in?"

"It's Danish." Lukas replied.

"Can you speak Danish?"

"Ja"

"I don't think I've met a bilingual person before." Arthur enjoyed their pointless chit chat more than he ever expected.

"I'm not bilingual," Lukas explained, "I can speak Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and English."

"That's _a lot_ of languages." Arthur was honestly amazed.

"They all sound similar, so it's not such a big deal. And I more understand Swedish than speak it."

"Oh, if you say so."

Arthur knew more about things now.

The next week they started to realize how Christmas was approaching.

"About the Whisker Whiskey." Lukas started in the library.

"What is it?" Arthur asked curiously, turning from homework to look at Lukas.

"The first step is to let the troll hair soak in room temperature water for a month."

"Yeah? It makes the potion taste really disgusting."

"When do we start to actually make the potion?" Lukas asked.

"Oh- Right, what's the exact day amount?"

"31" Lukas answered simply, as usual.

"The Christmas vacation is two weeks long, right?"

Lukas nodded.

"If we put it to prepare on the 4th of December, then we can finish it the second day after New years."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Should we do it?"

"Ja."

The last few days before December went by almost as quickly as the ones before. Arthur felt like he hadn't achieved much that month, but he didn't feel un-accomplished.

There was something relaxing about being able to accept not doing much, and just existing. It wasn't as much about doing something important as it was doing something enjoyable, although he didn't admit that to himself.

They decided to go visit outside a bit, the Stephan Squad had made it clear that it had started snowing. Everyone in their class had excitedly ran outside, and Arthur and Lukas felt like going too. They were a bit isolated form the rest of the group, but they could enjoy it too.

Arthur expected Lukas to not want to go freeze outside, but he seemed actually excited about it.

They sat on stairs, and watched as the rest of their class threw snowballs with hands and magic. A few were building a snowman, and it was honestly a really nice sight.

There were other houses outside too, and it quickly turned into a snowball battle between houses.

Lukas seemed to just be enjoying letting snow fall and the dry air, he looked like he was in his element.

Arthur could help but to dislike how cold it was, and how every now and then a snowball went past him very close to his face. If Lukas was enjoying it though, he didn't dare to pull him back indoors.

At one point Arthur's eyes caught two bright reds in the white snowy scenery. Vlad had joined everyone and was throwing snowballs with his hands like it wasn't weird for a dark magic user.

Arthur wondered if Vlad was really bad, for a moment. Sure he seemed like a smug bastard and hated his guts, and showed stupid distaste towards Slytherins, but he didn't seem all evil.

At least Vlad seemed like he could actually have fun and make friends, which was admirable.

It wasn't like Dark arts were instantly evil, he had for the longest time thought that they could be used for good. It could be Vlad had cursed Malfoy for a good reason.

Arthur didn't have proof for either way, after all. he turned to look at Lukas.

Lukas was picking some snow to make a snowball, he didn't seem to plan to throw it, just make one.

It was interesting that Lukas could have turned both ways too, but he turned out to be a really nice person. Maybe Arthur was getting somewhere with this perspective.

He was going to poison Vlad either way.

On the fourth of December, Lukas and Arthur were setting up the potion.

Lukas casted Aguamenti, and filled the cauldron. Arthur was preparing the troll whiskers, they had to be clean of dust and other small non-wanted gunk.

"If this doesn't work, what do we do?"

"We can't know if it worked before Vlad drinks it." Lukas put it bluntly: "If it fails, he'll have to suffer the mistakes, and we'll get caught."

Arthur sighed: "Well then."

"The cauldron is ready." Lukas stated.

Arthur picked the troll hairs up, and walked over. "The whiskers too."

"You ready?"

Arthur nodded.

"They need to be added by dropping them individually."

Arthur looked at the hairs he was holding. "Okay." He picked one and dropped it into the water. Nothing special happened from that, but Lukas didn't seem to notice anything wrong with that, so Arthur kept going.

After a bit, all 4 whiskers were in the cauldron, and Lukas placed a lid on it.

"So.." Arthur started. "What do we do now?"

Lukas looked at the cauldron. "The usual, I guess."

"Back to routine, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure that worked?"

"The book said nothing special would happen."

"It doesn't feel right."

"Well it is right."

"I'm not doubting that-"

"You kind of are."

"…" Arthur stared at his blunt blue eyed bud. "Well."

Lukas looked away. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Arthur waved his hand dismissively. "I guess I just expected more."

Lukas looked at Arthur.

"I do enjoy relaxing and just doing everyday stuff." Arthur started to vent. "But I was hoping for something exciting to happen."

"You want a repeat of the rock flinging?" Lukas asked, he sounded confused.

"No- Of course not." Arthur replied. "I just feel like.. The daily routine thing feels a lot more enjoyable when I know something cool will happen. Otherwise it just becomes really stale."

"And you've felt stale lately, so you hoped this would be interesting?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Arthur sighed, he sounded frustrated.

Lukas crossed his arms "Makes sense."

"You too?"

"Yeah, it's been pretty stale." He explained. "But Christmas is soon, so I'm not too bothered by it."

"That's a good point." Arthur turned to look at the cauldron. "It was still a bit disappointing."

"It happens." Lukas shrugged.

Arthur looked at Lukas. "You're really good at keeping calm."

".." Lukas didn't really reply.

Afterwards the two returned to the daily routine.


	13. The Kirkland boys

Arthur felt a familiar dusty pillow against his face.

His objective had been simple. Go upstairs and change clothes to something more casual, then go back downstairs and enjoy the holiday.

Somewhere between changing clothes and going downstairs, Arthur failed to proceed as planned.

All his life, he had lived in the same house. Although, yes, he was born before his parents broke up and moved to different buildings, but he doesn't remember a speck of the old house so it doesn't count.

This house was his home, but now after spending so long in Hogwarts the feeling of the bed had completely changed. It was dusty and cold. Arthur found it rather bothersome.

Somehow the way to deal with this issue for him was to instinctively lay face first on the bed. How strange.

Arthur turned around on the fabric, locking his eyes with nothing in particular. His room was small and had rather boring decoration. A few posters of mighty wizards he had gotten from weird wizard magazines his father used to collect, a calendar that hadn't been turned since he left Hogwarts, and his travel trunk.

The his gaze slowed down, and an expression of confusion sank onto his face. Where was his table? Not to mention the chair, or everything he had left on the table.

He used to have a table right next to the closet and now there was just a dustless spot.

He flung right up from his bed and proceeded back to his objective. Arthur walked down the extremely claustrophobic stairs with no windows, and only as much light as dark wood would let there be.

He opened a door at the end of the stairs, leading into another pitifully slim and short hallway, at least it had a window at the far end of it. Arthur opened another door further in the hallway, and arrived to a small but actually extremely cozy living room. No windows, but a fireplace, warm carpet, and the largest most lived in couch the room could fit.

Andrew was sleeping on it, with a hat atop his head. Arthur felt a shade of déjà vu in his stomach, but decided to ignore it and march to the kitchen.

The kitchen and living room were some of the very rare rooms not divided by walls in the whole house. After passing the dining area the kitchen was directly attached to, Arthur found Owen in the kitchen working on the Christmas dinner.

"Where's dad?" Arthur simply asked.

Owen turned over towards him, as he placed a spoon next to him on the table. "Take a guess." He said. His voice was still radiating with the usual calm and inviting aura, but was also bored, very bored.

"The workshop?"

"Yeah." Owen nodded and turned back around. "Also your shirt is on backwards.

Arthur made his way through a door in the kitchen that lead back to the hallway he had been at just a moment ago, with a red flush on his face and hands changing sleeves to turn the shirt around.

The work shop was located at the ground floor. To arrive there, one must walk through a door by the window that lead to stairs that lead to the porch which was also the entrance to his father's fixing-stuff-shop that had the workshop in the back behind an usually locked door.

Arthur had navigated the house for years, the small divided rooms and dark mahogany floor against the white barely wallpapered walls did not bother him that much.

After being in Hogwarts for so long though, it felt _different_.

The Kirkland house was a very claustrophobic house, with divided small rooms, to make it easy to stay away from other inhabitants.

While Hogwarts was a large open castle.

He knocked on the workshop door, only to find it already be open. Arthur walked into the dark gadget filled and messy room, to look at his father who was keeping the only light in the room to himself.

A small muggle table lamp wasn't that useful against the completely dark mahogany covered room. Arthur hadn't realized how much of an obsession his father had with mahogany before.

"Dad." He said as he tried not to step on anything in the room.

His father jumped a bit and turned back to face Arthur, he lifted weird glasses he had which were made to help him "Zoom" as he put it. Arthur didn't really understand it.

"Oh hey, Artie." He greeted. "You look dusty."

Arthur crossed his arms. "Well it's not my fault you haven't been cleaning our rooms while we were away." He wasn't exactly bothered, but his voice sounded stern most of the time.

"Just wait 'till your kids tell you that." He chuckled in response. "I did try to get Connor to clean them but he said no."

"Not surprised."

His father nodded, it was not surprising.

"Speaking of dust," Arthur started, "Where's my table."

His father looked a bit like a deer in headlights for a moment. "OH-" He let out a bit of nervous laughter. "Now you see, you don't get homework for the holidays right? So I just felt like you would mind if I.. Sold it."

"..What?"

"I sold your writing table to Miss Huckleberry, her son needed it." He explained. "I was going to buy you a new one, but then Christmas came sooner than I expected and.. Well. You know."

Arthur huffed: "Why didn't you ask me for permission?!"

"Well, first of all you haven't been sending me almost any letters. Your brothers send me them regularly, and you know even a monthly 'HI, DAD' would be appreciated." He explained like it was the worst thing imaginable. "So it's not like I can expect you to actually bother answering before Miss Huckleberry would just go and buy a table from someone else, and she was being so nice! I couldn't imagen letting her down!"

Arthur looked utterly speechless watching his dad's half serious rant.

"Oh thank you Chester for this lovely table! She said." His dad just kept on going. "Can you believe she actually called me by my name! Not by fucking Chip, oh my god."

"You sold my table just so she wouldn't call you by your nickname…?" Arthur stared at his maniac of a father.

"Am I really the bad guy if she was willing to buy the table without hearing if you gave consent? Isn't that the evil one?"

"I just want my table back, not talk about ethics."

"It's Christmas day! The best day to think about ethics!" His father was clearly not even slightly serious anymore.

"I'll just.." Arthur took a step back. "..Head back upstairs." He tried to play up his confusion a bit as well, he liked joking around even if he wasn't the type to admit it.

"I'll get you a new table for summer, don't worry, kiddo."

"Thanks." He said and walked out through the little fixing-stuff-shop. It was always covered in all sorts of little gadgets and looked quite calm in the natural lighting of a snowy winter day. The shop was always much more open than the main house, with its large windows and proper flowery wallpaper.

He left the indoors with a light sound of a bell that his dad had installed to tell him when customers arrive.

Outside of the shop was the wooden porch, it didn't hold more than a chainsaw and an un-finished stump that almost resembled an owl.

The customers always adored the little porch located inside a mountain, like a little cave. Sadly Arthur felt like they wouldn't want to live inside a mountain if they actually visited their house.

Arthur liked the in-mountain claustrophobic living style in a labyrinth like house filled with only guys and old closets full of weird things. Though, after Hogwarts he truly realized how much it differed from other people's idea of comfort.

His mind wondered what Lukas would think about the house, but the thought was pushed aside when he entered the kitchen to find Owen doing magical dishes. He looked a bit bothered, Arthur knew from experience that angry Owen was terrifying and decided to just quietly walk back into the hallway.

Owen didn't say anything, so he assumed it wasn't a big deal.

Arthur pondered about what to do, he was on Christmas break after all. He had the freedom to do all the things, if he wanted to.

He decided to just head back to his room.

The room was quiet and dusty, as expected. He walked by the bed and sat down, he had arrived back home only an hour ago, it wasn't surprising Arthur hadn't done much yet.

He glanced at his travel trunk. Arthur hadn't even started collecting the necessary items for the Whisker Whiskey.

Most things he could just ask his father to give, as a "school project" related things, but then there were the ones he would have to steal from his loving dad.

His father would not just give Arthur potion ingredients that only 7th years can use under supervision. Luckily Arthur knew where the key to the workshop was.

His thought process was cut off by a sudden crash in the hallway down the stairs. Arthur got up quickly and headed to the door. He didn't open it though, when he heard the voice of Owen go from 0 to a hundred almost too fast.

"No running in the hallways!" His voice wasn't pure anger, it was actually more comparable to severe frustration.

"Well, sorry!" Connor voiced with deep annoyance. "You told me to bring the plates quick!"

"Use common sense, for the love of god." Owen sighed.

"At least you don't have to clean them anymore." Connor mumbled.

"Don't test me, please." Owen continued with the utter frustration. "I'm really not in the mood."

"Yeah, yeah."

The sounds of multiple footsteps replaced the talking for a moment.

"Don't walk on the broken parts, they could cut you." Owen advice.

"I know that! I'm not a stupid kid."

"You're welcome." Owen huffed.

The rest of the whole situation seemed to just be Owen making Connor clean the hallway.

Arthur didn't enter the situation before everyone was called to eat. They used to always eat at the same time, but at a point it started to get harder. Now days they've just made it a special celebration related thing.

Arthur sat between Connor and his father. He hadn't seen Connor at all that day, it was fascinating to see his only younger brother after such a long break of not having to look at that tiny angry face.

Owen sat next to their dad, and Andrew took the last open seat. Somehow Andrew had already attained a bedhead, even though he had not even touched a bed during all of the holiday.

The food looked nice, nothing too special, but nice. It used to look absolutely amazing, but Hogwarts had spoiled Arthur all year. He felt a bit of quilt for thinking so.

Andrew took the first piece of turkey. No-one had said anything yet, but the mutually agreed fact that food was good helped it from not getting awkward.

"So Hogwarts," their dad started. "Anything cool to tell me?"

Chester, aka their father has always had a weird fanboy like relationship to Hogwarts. Arthur feels a little bad about how the man acts like his best years were back then, like nothing could ever compare to that ever again. Sad.

"There was this weird Slytherin situation." Andrew spoke up. "More first years were sorted into Slytherin in centuries."

"What? really?" Their father was so genuinely interested that it was almost worrying.

"Yeah." Andrew nodded, stuffing his face full of turkey.

"I'm in a special small class." Arthur took the pause to explain. "We have a bit under 10 students."

"How strange." Chester thought, rubbing his chin. "Well, if you get a proper education I won't mind."

"It must make making friends harder." Owen added.

"Well for your information I made a friend." Arthur said proudly, like an annoyed little kitten.

"…You did?" Owen said, everyone at the table looked so immensely in disbelief that Arthur started to doubt it a bit as well.

"Yeah, I did."

"Was it the kid in the library?" Andrew said, his voice was utterly blank. Which was strange since Andrew usually took any chance to make a bad joke.

"Yes. Lukas, he's from Norway."

"Someone outside of Britain? That's rare." Their dad said, placing his drink down. "Does he have a funny accent?"

"…No." Arthur furrowed his brows. He felt strangely un-comfortable about the fact his dad would use "funny" to describe Lukas' accent. Something must have rubbed off of Lukas onto him, and he wasn't complaining.

"Oh." Chester looked taken back.

"He must be nice." Owen said, smiling lightly, he had always been a mood lifter.

"He is." Arthur said, and then proceeding with eating.

"Seemed pretty shy to me." Andrew added, his voice lacked the usual spark again. Making Arthur and possibly everyone at the table feel slight discomfort.

"Well that isn't inherently bad." Owen added.

"I didn't say it was bad."

"I know- I just wanted to clear it up."

"Why?"

"Well." Owen tilted his head quickly towards Connor and Arthur.

"You think we're idiots, huh?" Connor said, angrily.

"I do not." Owen said. "I just want to make sure we're on the same page."

"You could just say it and not talk down on me."

"Can you stop trying to purposefully start and argument?!" Owen snapped, slamming his hands on the table. He being the tallest in the whole room made him an incredibly menacing sight.

"I just-" Connor eeped.

"I am done." Owen said in a deeply bothered voice. "I wanted to spend a nice Christmas between all of us but none of you are cooperating!"

"Huh?" Andrew looked at Owen, slightly worried.

"I have to cook, clean, and do all of these stupid housemaid things when all of you just relax and enjoy the holidays." He gestured at Andrew's bedhead. "I want a break too, school is fucking hell. BUT NO, no, none of you can handle your own dirty dishes. No, none of you even suggested to help out! Do you realize how difficult it is to cook all this food?!"

"Owen, I'm sorry." Chester said, lifting his hand to place on to Owen's. "I didn't kno-"

Owen pulled his hand away before they touched. "Didn't know! Did you even think to ask?!" He took a step away from the table. "And not even a 'Thank you for the food, it is so nice to eat together' nope." Owen sighed one more time and stormed out of the room.

An unnerving silence fell over the inhabitants of the table, everyone was too shook to truly take in what had happened.

Chester, as the man who wore the big pants in the house decided to take the lead. "..Let's just eat the rest in our rooms."

"Like Halloween." Arthur said, with a hint of nervous laughter. He hated the dreadful silence.

"Right, the troll attack?" Their father said, picking some of the food on his plate.

"Owen is much scarier, though." Connor said, walking out the room with a plate full of food.

"…Yeah." Chester sighed, and walked out as well.

Andrew looked at Arthur, who was putting some tasty smashed potato on his plate.

"Do you want to eat in the living room with me?"

"We're not allowed to eat in the living room."

"Yeah but, I doubt dad would mind."

Arthur placed the spoon the potatoes had claimed as theirs back to their potatoey domain. "…Maybe for a bit."

Arthur didn't enjoy Andrew's company. Andrew was annoying, full of himself, and had terrible humour.

When something serious happened though, Andrew would not fool around. He would become serious, and somewhat caring. Arthur kind of liked that Andrew, since he made him wish the normal one.

The living room Sofa was nice, warm and felt like home.

"The Common room sure has nice sofas, huh?" Andrew said, seemingly trying to calm the mood.

"Hah, yeah." Arthur replied.

"You haven't been by the sofa you usually are at lately, huh? I'm sure two 11 year olds could fit on it."

"We just prefer the library." Arthur said, feeling the sudden interrogation bringing weight on his chest. Lukas had given him example lies to use if face with certain questions, because he knew how bad Arthur was at lying.

"I suppose it is calmer." Andrew shrugged the answer off.

Arthur looked at their family picture placed atop fireplace. They were all a few years younger in it. It was difficult to take a picture of so many people when no-one was holding the camera.

"Try not to stress too much."

Arthur got up. "I won't."

He then walked over to his room, and placed his food next to him on the bed. It sure would have been nice to eat on a table, he thought to himself.

It had already gotten dark outside.

He placed the plate on his lap, and ate some of the smashed potatoes. Owen made better smashed potatoes than whoever made them in Hogwarts.

Speaking of Hogwarts, the sound of an owl pecking the window broke the silence of the room.

Arthur jumped from the sudden sound, and turned to look at it. It was the bird he had learnt to recognise as Lukas'.

It would be an understatement to say he was happily surprised.

He quickly opened the window, letting the beautiful owl fly in. It had a small muggle letter tied to it's leg.

Arthur grabbed the weirdly clean paper that muggles make, and opened it to find a very tacky Christmas card. It had a glittery picture of Santa Claus, with the text usual happy holidays on it.

He turned it around, getting a small paper cut on his left hand. Arthur didn't give it much thought though, because what he found on the other side of the card was too interesting to him.

It read "Happy Holidays" and "Happy new year," both in different handwriting. To add to it, it was signed by Lukas, but also "Mathias." Under the other signature Lukas had written "My neighbour wanted to sign it too."

Arthur looked at the card in silence, he finally found out what Lukas' neighbour's name was. It felt nice. Not to mention how nice it felt to get a card from him, although he had to wonder how in hell did the owl get from Norway to England in under a day.

He finished his meal, feeling a sense of warmth. It was enjoyable again.

Arthur started to get ready for bed, only to remember that he had not asked for the Whiskery Whiskey ingredients. He opened his Travel trunk in hurry, grabbing his fabric covered book.

He had bookmarked the page for Whisker Whisky, and even made a shopping list esque item list for what he would need to acquire.

In a swift move he grabbed the list, put it in his pyjama's usually useless pockets alongside his wand, and walked over to the door. It was already night time, so he should be able to sneak into the workshop.

He opened the door quietly, and walked down the stairs even more quietly. Not to mention how quietly he opened the door to the hallway.

No-one seemed to be around, although the living room's door was open and light flooded from there to the hall. If Arthur was careful though, he could avoid being detected by anyone in the living room.

After all those times he had snuck to his bed at night in Hogwarts, Arthur should be the master sneaker by now.

He arrived safely to the window down the hall, and quietly sneaked down the stairs to reach the porch. The winter air was incredibly cold, making Arthur feel utter discomfort. He a bit hastily made his way down to the shop.

Only to hear the sound of a bell. He had triggered the door's bell system, and could hear his father's footsteps from the workshop.

Damn it, his dad was awake and in the workshop, of course. Arthur quickly looked around for a hiding spot, and luckily found a very large contraption pushed in the corner. It was just large enough for him to hide behind of. Arthur was for once happy of his shortness.

His father walked by the door, looked melancholically out to the snowy road, and then walked back into the workshop.

Arthur still sat behind the weird contraption. He had to figure out how to get his father out of the workshop long enough for him to grab the ingredients.

The shop felt rather cold, possibly because of the windows.

Arthur then heard a clink by the window. When he turned to look, there was an owl.

Lukas' owl. It seemed to not be satisfied with Arthur not giving it a reply. It kept pecking the window right by him.

This seemed to alarm his dad.

Chester walked into the room with a broom in his other hand, it seemed to be his special broom that worked both as a punching stick at stupid teens from town who wandered over to his show, as well as a sword against mean thieves. The design of a broom with a sword inside was given to their father by Andrew.

Chester was proud.

He took steps and walked right over to Arthur. His dad looked at the owl pecking the window, as if to try to see what it wanted.

Arthur looked at his father's feet in front of him, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

The owl seemed to turn out helpful, when his father walked outside to go "Shoo shoo" it away.

Chester had left the door open while doing this, which gave Arthur an idea.

He hurriedly crawled over to the door, and pulled it shut. Locking his father outside in the snow, while making it look like the wind had done it.

Somehow a weird chain of events had lead to Arthur's favour.

He snuck quickly into the workshop, if he worked fast he could get through this un-detected.

Arthur opened his father's potion ingredients closet. With a flip of a hat, his night cap he didn't actually use but owned anyways became a very good stash for small containers of magical potion making ingredient's.

The adrenaline made him feel almost un-stoppable when he placed the last needed item in the hat bag, and started sprinting to the hiding spot by the corner. He decided to wait for his father to come back, and quietly sneak back to his room.

He had trouble controlling his breathing anymore, but he had to manage.

After a few minutes, Chester finally came back with spare keys. He walked annoyed into the workshop, and slammed the door shut.

Arthur took the chance and snuck out of there, this time doing it slow enough for the bell to not react.

He walked up the stairs, and entered the hallway, the living room still had a light on. He snuck carefully to the door by the stair's, and begun walking up.

"What's inside your hat?"

Arthur stopped, his heart pounding faster than he liked to admit.

Andrew was standing by the door. Arthur wasn't sure how anyone would go about describing the emotion in his voice. It was blank, yet felt crushing and almost _worried_.

"Arthur?"

Arthur turned to look at Andrew. He could feel his expression looking like prey caught by its natural enemy, but there was no way he could change the fact. He was scared, and there was no way of changing that.

"Arthur, why are you sneaking out at night?"

Arthur tried to gesture that 'Hey, maybe don't say that out loud'

Andrew's voice lowered to a whisper. "Why do you sneak out at night to dad's workshop, not to mention how you arrive to the common room in the middle of the night with you friend, or that.. hand thing." Andrew pointed at his left hand, that had the weird burn scar visibly on it.

Arthur couldn't believe he had missed the fact the papercut had made it visible again. He couldn't reply to Andrew, it felt like an invisible wall had formed between them.

"…What are you doing?" Andrew started to sound desperate, and his menacing figure became almost pitiful. "I am seriously worried about you."

"It's nothing." Arthur said, sounding absolutely un-certain.

"If it isn't nothing then you should have proper explanations for all this!" Andrew huffed between his teeth. "Please just be honest with me, I'll promise to listen."

Arthur turned away and took a step up the stairs, he had to escape the situation and quick.

"Arthur." Andrew tried to stop him, but Arthur kept going. "Our family still has hope, if we just-"

He closed the door.

"…Talk to each other."

The Kirkland house was a very claustrophobic house, with divided small rooms, to make it easy to stay away from other inhabitants.


	14. Back to business

"Did you get the ingredients?" Lukas asked, opening his book on dark arts.

The train hummed down the track as expected, as Arthur replied: "I did, most at least." He pulled his night cap from the trunk, showing what was inside.

Lukas looked both relieved and confused, which was quite an achievement with the limited range of expressions he seemed to have. "Why are they in a hat?"

"It's complicated." Arthur shrugged it off. "The main thing is that I got them, right?"

"I suppose." Lukas concluded, and opened the bookmarked page for Whisker Whiskey. They had bookmarked it together, it was strangely relaxing to craft bookmarks in a secret room with good company. "What about the things you didn't get?"

Arthur looked a bit embarrassed "Things didn't go exactly as simply as I expected." He sighed. "Family trouble got in the way, and I couldn't ask for the not-illegal ones."

"I grabbed a few things when we went shopping before New Year." Lukas explained, and showed a little potion-making-tools-for-beginners set he had with him. "It doesn't have hagfish slime though."

"That'll be a problem."

"I'm sure the potion class has some, considering how common it is."

Arthur looked at Lukas, with very slight nervous fear in his eyes. "Are you suggesting we steal from Professor Snape?"

"Yes." Lukas nodded.

"…I'm all for secret rooms and sneaking around, but…" Arthur sounded incredibly bothered. "Professor Snape is the last person I want to be caught by."

"…" Lukas looked at the book for a moment. "Let's not get caught then."

"You of all people know that's easier said than done." Arthur sighed and leaned against the seat.

Lukas looked out the window, with the book calmly in his hands.

"I feel kind of bad." Arthur abruptly spoke again.

Lukas turned to meet his eyes, but didn't say anything. Something made Arthur believe he was curious.

"I know we're helping people out and all that." Arthur sat up in a bit more proper manner. "But all this sneaking around and breaking the rules stuff is starting to feel wrong."

Lukas tapped the side of the book with his finger, turning his gaze away.

"I mean.. Do we really care about what happens to Malfoy?"

Lukas bit his lip.

Arthur looked somewhat distraught; it was as if he was hoping Lukas to give him a proper counter argument. "I mean, I don't want that guy to suffer or anything." Arthur kept talking. "But it uh.. It uh." Arthur moved his hands, as if to try to grasp the right word. "Like, well-"

"An excuse?" Lukas said, looking at his finger. The tapping had stopped.

"…Well when you put it like that," Arthur sighed, "I mean I wouldn't have describe it so badly-" He cut himself off, and pondered for a moment. "Or, well, maybe I would." He sounded pained.

"We wouldn't know about Malfoy's situation without dark arts." Lukas explained.

Arthur inhaled sharply, Lukas was so incredibly blunt.

"I don't think it's bad, though." He continued. Arthur instantly looked interested.

Lukas continued with simply saying: "It's not like we're hurting people."

Arthur returned back to looking upset. "I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure I've hurt people with this."

Lukas looked at Arthur, eyes rather widely open.

"…I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh."

Arthur inhaled and exhaled in the most frustrated way imaginable. "It uh…"

Lukas kept looking at Arthur.

"IT UH, you know, well." He waved his arm a bit. "Andrew figured out I'm breaking rules, and I couldn't explain why."

Lukas tilted his head, returning his gaze to the book. "Ah."

"I really want to tell him." Arthur confessed. "But it would just make it worse."

"You aren't wrong." Lukas turned the book back to blue. "I wonder how people would react to this."

"I can just imagen the headlines." Arthur moved his hands as if to show them on a paper. "Two 11 year olds played around with dark magic and made a student barf."

Lukas seemed humoured.

There was a moment of relief between them, although nothing was truly solved.

It was starting to get dark outside, they would be returning to Hogwarts soon.

"How did you get into dark arts?" Lukas was surprisingly the one to start a new conversation.

"Hm? Oh-" Arthur seemed a little taken back. "Well, I found the book from my Grandfather's attic when we went to collect his stuff."

"Why?"

"He was found out to be a death eater, and got thrown into Azkaban." Arthur explained. "I guess I just got curious."

"Not everyone gets curious about dark arts." Lukas said, as if to make Arthur explain more.

"…Right." Arthur shrugged in a very un-convincing way. "I guess I just liked the idea of having my own thing. With 3 brothers it's difficult to stand out."

"Ah." Lukas nodded, as if to agree that it made sense.

"What about you?"

Lukas stayed silent.

"It's only fair." Arthur said, but started to doubt if he really wanted to make Lukas explain.

"My father was found out to be an user of dark magic." Lukas explained. "No relation to the-one-who-should-not-be-named, just dark magic."

Lukas leaned back on his seat, and turned his gaze at the ceiling. The train jumped lightly. "He wasn't a bad person. I kind of… Want to prove that I guess."

"That's… Different from mine." Arthur chuckled lightly. "You have this noble thing going on, while I just… Want to stand out. Wow."

Lukas stayed quiet; it didn't give Arthur any sort of assurance.

They arrived to Hogwarts, and snuck into the cooperation chamber. The Key man was sleeping inside his borders.

"This place has gotten dustier." Arthur mused.

Lukas didn't say anything, and instead walked to his bean bag.

"My room was so damn dusty back home, too." Arthur sat as well. "Expect the one part where my table used to be. Can you belive my dad sold my table while I've been here?"

"Without permission?"

"That's what I said! But it doesn't really matter; he got me a table as a present."

Lukas smiled the tiniest bit, as he relaxed on the dusty bag. "I got socks and my mother bought our first Television."

"Like one of those boxes with images?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Interesting."

"My neighbour was really excited about it." Lukas shrugged.

"Right- Isn't his name Mathias?"

"The card?"

"Yeah." Arthur replied.

"He got really excited about the idea of sending something to you." Lukas explained, looking almost happy.

"Wow." Arthur looked amused. "Tell him I appreciate it."

"I'll write it in the next letter." Lukas nodded.

Arthur turned to look at the cauldron of gross troll hair water they had in the back of the room. "So, we'll make it properly on the 6th, right?"

Lukas gave him a nod.

"So we should get the Hagfish slime before that?" Arthur said, not sounding that excited.

Lukas gave him another nod.

"How should we go about doing that, though?" He continued. "We can't just sneak to the classroom at night."

"Why not?"

Arthur furrowed his brows. "Because we… We can't, okay?"

"It's close to the common room, and Professor Snape won't be there at night."

"But…" Arthur insisted. "What if someone sees us sneaking around? Or more importantly how do we stop that from happening?"

Lukas looked at his feet for a moment.

"I mean, I guess we could find a spell or something to help out…" Arthur continued all on his own. "I am not casting some curse on myself ever again, though."

Lukas hugged his legs lightly.

"…Not that you deserve that either." Arthur scratched the back of his head. "… Let's just, look through the book."

Lukas agreed, and they started looking through their options.

They didn't have time to properly find a good option, before class the next day.

It was a good old regular school day. Arthur felt surprisingly glad about this fact, the change of holidays had made it feel fresh again. Francis Bonnefoy had taken points that should have belonged to slytherin, but it wasn't enough to discourage Arthur.

He was pumped up for the rest of the year.

A bit less ordinary thing happened that day too, between Malfoy and Vlad.

Lukas and Arthur were arriving to class as usual, but the next classroom over Malfoy was angrily complaining the lacking magical ability he was showcasing.

It wouldn't have been that strange, but Vlad had walked by.

"I can't belive this school can't fix something they've already proven to not be my magical ability's fault." Malfoy groaned. "You would think Hogwarts would have professionals at work."

"Maybe it's karma." Vlad said haphazardly as he walked past.

"What did you say to me, mudblood?"

Vlad stopped, and turned to look at Malfoy. "I said: Maybe it's karma." He sounded annoyingly serious to Malfoy's ears, based on how he reacted. "You go around belittling people around you, treating them like garbage. Maybe the world decided that you don't deserve magic."

"Pff." Malfoy chuckled. "I guess I've hurt your feelings, huh?"

Vlad hmph'd and kept walking.

"What makes you think you're worth magic, red-eyes?"

Vlad kept walking, and Arthur nor Lukas really heard what he said. They later were able to confirm that he had mumbled "Nothing really." through Mike.

"Have you ever thought about why Vlad has red eyes?" Arthur spoke to Lukas in the library. They had returned to researching ways to make it easy to steal from their potion teacher.

"I've just assumed it would have to do with dark arts." Lukas answered, turning a page.

"But wouldn't the teachers notice?"

Lukas nodded.

"Maybe he just gave them a lie as a reason." Arthur tried to explain it to himself.

"Must have been a good lie." Lukas said, seemingly not buying it.

"Well, yeah, I guess so."

"nicitix" Lukas suddenly said, placing his finger on the title on the page.

"Hm?" Arthur stood a bit more upwards on the chair. Lukas handed him the book, so he could read it.

The spells primary function seemed to be making its user soundless for a few hours. Anything they touched would not make a noise for that whole time; Even if they played a violin, or used a chainsaw.

Lukas was a bit surprised when Arthur pointed that he in fact knew what a chainsaw was.

"What do you think?"

"It could work." Arthur nodded. "At least we could sneak easily." He turned to look more deeply at the side effects; he had bad experiences with those.

Apparently it made its user near sighted, have numbed senses and dry mouth for 4 hours, which also started before the soundlessness.

"Well." Arthur "It seems alright."

"I'll do it tomorrow." Lukas said somewhat firmly, as he took his book back.

Arthur blinked a few times. "Wait- What?"

"I'll cast the spell and get the ingredients."

"Alone?"

Lukas nodded.

Arthur could not believe what he was hearing. "Why?"

Lukas turned the black book blue. "You used Ostendente alone, besides its harder to find one kid sneaking around than two."

Arthur opened his mouth to show his disagreement, but he couldn't think of a proper counter argument. "I guess you are right." He sighed. "I am not going to let you deal with the side effects all on your own though."

"Thanks." Lukas said, his voice was incredibly neutral. "I'll see if Prous works on it."

"Prous?"

"It's the spell I used to speed the effects of Ostendente."

"Oh, I see." Arthur said, he felt a little disappointed.

"Alright." Lukas got up. "I'll do it tomorrow night."

Arthur got up as well. "You can back away from it any moment you want."

Lukas nodded.

They entered the Chamber of Cooperation, to discuss some details.

The next day arrived, with more schoolwork. Arthur was still rather alright with the ordinary school days.

Lukas had gone to the Chamber of Cooperation before Arthur that day, he said he wanted to go write a letter to Mathias to kick of the new year. Arthur decided to use the time to follow Vlad around.

Vlad was hanging out as usual with his "Friends," who were excitedly praising him for being so "amazing" and "cool" at magic. Arthur couldn't help but to feel annoyed by the whole scene.

He decided to turn back to join Lukas after a bit of staring, but when he turned around a tall dark figure was standing right behind him.

"Professor Snape-" He squeaked in surprise, as he tried to regain his bearings. Arthur must have looked incredibly suspicious.

"Spending time in strange places again, huh?" He replied to him.

"Oh, well-" Arthur lifted his shoulders in a kind of shrug like movement, but it was so awkwardly done it just looked strange. "Just a hallway."

"Well you've shown countless times that you prefer hallways over the common room." Snape stated. "Many have expressed confusion to why you are not present there."

Arthur chuckled nervously. "They have? Wow, I uh. Didn't know they cared about me like that."

"Speaking of your fellow students." Snape ignored Arthur's comment. "Mr. Popescu has made a complaint about you."

"A what now-"

"He has stated concern that you might be _following_ him."

"Ah." Arthur barely could make a sound.

"At first I claimed the suspicion to be rather ridiculous. I would not expect a student to be doing something so strange and against common sense."

Arthur couldn't reply anymore, he just stood there nervously smiling and possibly sweating.

"Then I saw you lurking in the hallway, and after studying what I was seeing for a moment; I've concluded you are in deep trouble."

Arthur inhaled sharply.

"Join me in detention in 20 minutes."

"Yes, Professor." He breathed out heavily, the nervousness bleeding out in every sense possible.

Professor Snape gave him a nod, and walked away.

To say Arthur rushed to the Cooperation Chamber would be an understatement.

Lukas placed the freshly written letter on the table, and turned to look at his partner in crime. "I guess Snape is better at sneaking than you."

Arthur sighed: "He was so bloody quiet!" He layed on the bean bag, looking defeated. "This is my second time in detention this year, he must be suspicious by now!"

"You'll have to learn to lie." Lukas said dryly.

"It's harder than you'd think." Arthur sounded utterly frustrated.

"At least we have a distraction." Lukas continued, dismissing Arthur's little argument starter.

"Huh?"

"If I sneak to the classroom during your detention, we know Snape won't be there."

Arthur looked a bit surprised: "That's a good point."

"I won't need the spell either."

"That's even better." Arthur continued.

Lukas looked at Arthur with slight surprise in his eyes.

5 minutes later, Arthur knocked on Snape's door. The door opened almost eerily quickly afterwards. "At least you are in time, again."

"Heh." Arthur sighed.

He sat down on a chair, and turned to look at Snape.

His gaze was weirdly piercing, and made Arthur feel smaller than he was.

"What would lead a mostly proper student to spy on another?" Snape asked, somewhat indirectly.

"I was jealous?" He said, sounding a bit surer than in the hallway. Lukas had given him a few lie suggestions, but he still wasn't the best at delivering them.

"Popsecu certainly is well known for high scores." Snape added.

Suddenly a thought popped to Arthur's mind. "…Don't you think that's suspicious?"

Snape looked at him for a moment, as if to study the way Arthur's whole way of carrying himself had changed to so much more sure and confident.

"Not all students use illegal means to obtain more ability, Kirkland." He said.

Arthur felt almost stung by the words, Snape did not trust him apparently. He couldn't blame him.

After a pause, Snape spoke again: "The candelabras are dirty again, clean them." He motioned towards the familiar cleaning supplies. Arthur proceeded as asked.

He scrubbed them in silence for a moment, but he soon had to scrub while listening to someone clearly interrogating him.

"By being jealous, are you implying you used Soluserix because you wanted to be like Mr. Popescu?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Rather noble for a rule breaker to admit such bothersome traits." Snape said, sounding quite mocking. "Almost too good."

"My dad raised me well." Arthur tried to reply properly, but didn't come off that sure.

Snape motioned him to just keep scrubbing. Arthur did as asked.

"You and Mr. Bondevik have become friends, according to your classmates. Is that right?"

"Yes, I think so." Arthur replied.

"Bondevik is a very talented individual, but shares your issue of not appearing in the common room like other students." Snape explained. "I hope he will not have to join you in cleaning candelabras."

"He isn't a mess like me." Arthur chuckled, sounding a little melancholical. "He's really great." Arthur said, not truly thinking it through. "Talented, smart, and doesn't mess up- do stupid things like me."

Snape looked at him, it almost felt like he was speechless. Arthur couldn't help but to think that Snape might have been as bad with emotions as him. He could swear Snape hadn't signed up for venting 11 year olds.

Arthur just kept on scrubbing, rest of the detention was utter silence.

Around 9 pm, he got out of there and rushed to the Cooperation Chamber. Lukas was waiting for him there, with a Hagfish slime jar on the table.

"You got it, huh?"

"Yeah, in and out in a few minutes." Lukas explained. "No-one saw me."

"Wow." Arthur said with a breathy voice. "You are really good at sneaking, huh?"

"I hear that a lot."

"I've never."

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Arthur sat on the bean bag. "Let's just relax, you know?"

"…Okay?" Lukas sat on the bean bag next to him.

"We got all the ingrediants, a proper pot of troll hair and Snape isn't _that_ suspicious." He explained. "I think that's worth enjoying ourselves or something."

"I suppose you are right." Lukas nodded.

There was a sense of neither of them really buying Arthur's "Chill" properly

 **...THERE YOU GO?**  
 **Honestly I haven't reread these and am not even sure if they're in the right order.**  
 **Whatever though, I hope you guys enjoy it even so and I hope none of you are too attached to this.**

 **(I still would say I am proud of this fic though, so don't feel bad for liking it)**


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